BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 11, 2022

Mike Carey

West Virginia Mountaineers

Postgame Press Conference

West Virginia 60, Iowa State 66

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by Coach Mike Carey. Coach?

MIKE CAREY: To our credit, I thought our girls played hard. Both teams played hard. We tried to mix it up on them. They dribble-drove us a lot at our place, so we tried to double team and make 'em kick it.

But, man, that second quarter I don't think they missed a three. They were hitting three's.

But I thought as the game wore on they started missing because they wore down a little bit. We had good looks. We had a lot of good looks; just didn't put it in the hole.

Good game. Good game.

Q. Mike is that what it came down to, is they converted a couple more chances than you did? Like you said, end of the third quarter, fourth quarter had a lot of chances to get it to 4, 5; just couldn't get shots to go.

MIKE CAREY: I think the key was the second quarter, to be honest with you, I hate to go all the way back there but then because we was so far behind, we kept cutting it to 5, 6 and that, and then we would miss an easy one and miss a foul shot.

And they come down and they're not going to miss foul shots. You can't foul 'em. We had a couple that should have been a switch at the elbow; we didn't switch and they got two layups. It was just one thing after another.

I thought Esmery, what did she have? Had 18 and 11 rebounds. And I start Ari Gray; come in and had 10 rebounds.

And then JJ, our freshman, I thought she did a good job, too.

And Maddie had assists. It was a good game. Really for the fans and that I thought it was a good game. I wish we would have won, but we didn't.

I told the girls after the game they played hard, I was proud of them, other than they gave up too many offensive rebounds.

Q. Coach, seems like you went to Ari there at the 5. Was that just kind of out of necessity for those double teams, and like you said, defending on the perimeter?

MIKE CAREY: I thought she was playing well, getting to the ball, she was rebounding the ball. I thought she did a little scoring for us. She played hard.

If they play hard I will play them. I don't determine playing time, they determine playing time. They go in and play hard, they play. They don't play hard, they come out. She played hard so she played.

Q. Coach, Savannah's minutes went up a lot after KK went down against Baylor and she gives you 10 and 6 tonight. Can you talk a little bit about what she has been able not only in this game but down the stretch for you?

MIKE CAREY: I thought she did a good -- she has length. Of all our guards she has length, long arms, she bothers people a little bit. So I thought she did a good job defensively. I think her best -- she is really a redshirt freshman. I think her best years are ahead of her with length. She has length. Her and JJ are both freshman, so that's good to see.

Q. In the second half your team played more physically and that trended to your advantage a little bit. Was that the result of changing any tactics on defense or just more effort playing harder?

MIKE CAREY: Believe it or not we were supposed to play physical the second quarter, too. No. It's just effort. It's just effort, getting to the ball, talking, communicating. You know, we're quick enough they get weak side and lob pass we should meet the pass and we weren't doing that second quarter. You leave 'em open they're going to hit 'em. They're just going to hit 'em. I thought we got up into them a little bit better.

THE MODERATOR: Anything further? All right. Coach, appreciate it.