AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 8, 2022

Coach Angie Nelp

Wyvette Mayberry

Dickies Arena

Tulsa Golden Hurricane

Postgame Press Conference

UCF - 69, Tulsa - 54

MODERATOR: We have Tulsa Coach Angie Nelp and Sophomore Wyvette Mayberry. We will open up with Coach's statement and then we'll send it to Zoom and then the room for questions.

COACH ANGIE NELP: Yeah, man, what a game. Just again, just super, super proud of my team and the fight that they showed and the heart that they had on the floor. We had some really good performances with Wyvette and Rebecca and Maddie Bittle and we had some kids that did some good things from a numbers standpoint. But what doesn't show up on the stat sheet is just the heart of all these young women that are on our team and what they give every single time they step on the floor. Obviously you can look at the stat sheet and you can see some different categories. We kind of let the rebounding get away from us a little bit. But at the end of the day, I'm super proud of our team and I'm super proud of who they are and who they were on the floor today.

MODERATOR: Questions from inside the room?

Q. Coach, the only question I really had is when it comes into the rebounding, we know UCF's a great team when it comes to the post play, you're going to end up giving up some rebounds there. How do you prepare for that coming in when you know you're going to have really strong guard play but give up a little bit of size there down underneath?

COACH ANGIE NELP: Yeah, one thing I think our team has been - that's a good question, right? It comes down to some different schemes and strategies that we use. But one of the things that I think our team has always been is we've always been really good at team rebounding. So if you look at our numbers and look at our averages, sometimes our posts are just boxing out and our guards are the ones to fly in and rebound. And so as a team in general, we focus a lot on everybody kind of going in and helping each other and making sure it's a team effort and not just one or two people that you rely on.

Q. Coach, along those lines, the rebound discrepancy kind of got large early, yet the score was tied right through halftime or close to it. What do you attribute that to on your side to be able to keep up? Obviously the jump shots were falling, but was there anything more to that relative to the size clash maybe of the game?

COACH ANGIE NELP: Yeah, I think how we counterbalanced that a little bit with giving up so many offensive rebounds there in the first quarter. I thought in the second quarter we did a better job. I think we only gave up two offensive rebounds in the second quarter, but I'll have to double check that to make sure. but The way that we combated that a little bit was with some offensive firepower, we were able to score the ball a little better, we were able to shoot the 3 and anytime that we can get that offensively, it allows us to get a lot of momentum.

Q. Wyvette, just talk about your performance today. Again, trying to keep pace and set an offensive pace against a team that guards and rebounds as tough as UCF does?

WYVETTE MAYBERRY: Yeah, I feel like my team, we fought hard, we gave it everything we've got, I just think this is a growing opportunity. We're going to learn and grow and get better from this.

Q. Coach, assessing your first year now with this program and the progress you've made and where you think you're headed into the offseason.

COACH ANGIE NELP: Again, I know I'm going to repeat what I just said, but I'm so proud of these young women and the fight that they gave and I'm proud of our whole entire team. I thought this year the whole year we've been that team that's going to show up and fight, but we've had a really good mix of some senior veterans that have displayed and incredible amount of leadership, right, and we've had some younger players who are kind of coming in and learning and were able to learn from those veteran leaders. Just continuing to kind of build our culture and implement our culture and be able to grow on the court in some different skill areas. One of the things we talked about in the locker room is as much disappointment and hurt as we have today, we're going to harness it and we're going to grow from it and we're going to get better.