BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 3, 2023

James Howard

Jada Claude

Mohegan Sun Arena

Georgetown Hoyas

Postgame Media Conference

Georgetown - 53, Butler - 46

COACH HOWARD: The young ladies are excited about getting that first win in the tournament. Tough season. Fighting all the way down the stretch. But then you have young ladies that buy in. And this young lady is one of them who is sitting beside me. I think her last three games she started to put it all together for us.

She started to find her offense and her defense. And that's what really got us across. Our two guards didn't score the ball well but they continued to defend, in Kelsey Ransom and Kennedy Fauntleroy. And that's what teams do. Somebody else has to step up. And we're proud to be able to advance to tomorrow.

Q. Jada, that last-second shot you hit at the end of the first quarter, it cut it down to seven, but given how everything else unfolded, looking back on it is it crazy to think that shot may have turned the tide for the rest of the game right then and there?

JADA CLAUDE: Yeah, I'm really just happy that my teammates trusted me enough to take that last shot. We're all in the gym. We all want this game really bad. So, yeah.

Q. What was working so well? 7-of-12 from the floor, incredibly efficient. How did you get it done today?

JADA CLAUDE: Just trusting in the offense, having my coaches trust me, having my teammates trust me, like you said. These past couple of games for me have been pretty well. But that's not without my teammates. So I think today God was with me, I was hitting my shots.

Q. Third game against Butler. First game wasn't close. Two weeks ago in Indy, razor thin margin. And tonight the win. Obviously the question, what was the difference tonight between the first two games?

COACH HOWARD: The difference is Butler is a very good 3-point shooting team. And they get their shots off their penetration. I thought tonight we stayed disciplined and we didn't leave the outside shooters. And we had to pick our poison. We decided to stay out and then we gave up something in the inside, but 2s were better than 3s.

I think they finished with one made 3. That's not Butler. And I think our defense was really locked in. So I think that was the difference in the other two games that we played.

Q. On that note, your team didn't hit a single 3, yet you still came out with a win. Given the status of the modern game of basketball, with the 3-point shot being so prevalent, how impressive was it that your team came out with a win despite not hitting a single triple?

COACH HOWARD: I'll say this, as long as it's this time of the year, when you're on the winning side, I'll take the 0-for-10 any day. But we have to get back to the drawing board and hopefully tomorrow the ball is falling a little bit more.

But I think styles of games also made a difference in us not getting clean looks out there on the 3-point line. They switch a lot of stuff and they try to shut down penetration lanes. We were trying to be more attack-minded.

And I think tomorrow we're going to have to really look at some things. And hopefully we set out feet well and we've now got the feel of the rims, and hopefully we can knock down a couple of 3s.

Q. Speaking of tomorrow, you guys were in it deep in the fourth quarter when you played them last. What can you take away from that game and how can you prepare for tomorrow?

COACH HOWARD: Well, biggest thing is the styles now change. UConn is not a big 3-point shooting team. They want to use their size and ability to get the ball down low, penetrate, run a lot of different cuts.

So now we're going to have really lock in on stopping penetration and being physical on the defensive glass. I think that's their style of play. You're not going to have all the quick running around, penetrating in the middle, pull type of action.

So now we have to change our mindset. And the good part about playing them the last game is that we can show that and we can show how we defended them. But you've still got to know go play the game.

So I think our young ladies know that being in it for both times, going into the half in the first game, we were right there as well. And coming down the stretch, I think we cut it to nine or so.

So it's the opportunity. It's the opportunity this time of year to continue to play. And I don't think our players will want it any differently. Yes, the draw is UConn, but I know that playing them and having a little success out there quarter by quarter against them can give us something to build off of.