MOUNTAIN WEST WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 5, 2023

Gordy Presnell

Elodie Lalotte

Mya Hansen

Thomas & Mack Center

Boise State Broncos

Postgame Press Conference

Boise State 66, Utah State 58

THE MODERATOR: Joining Boise State coach Gordy Presnell will be Mya Hansen and Elodie Lalotte.

We'll have an opening remark about tonight's game.

GORDY PRESNELL: I'm just glad that we won. Tonight was one of our goals, and we wanted to assure ourselves of a winning season. We started our program over about two years ago. We knew last year would be difficult, and this year we've come a long ways, and so we are 17-15, and ready to play again tomorrow night.

But really proud of our players. We've got an outstanding returning group for next year, and then we have an outstanding freshman class. So excited about all of them and excited to get a chance to be with them another night.

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Mya, I mean, on your first three-pointer you were calling for the ball pretty adamantly there, and then you swished it perfectly. Especially coming off of that injury, what kind of spark does that make to give you confidence moving forward?

MYA HANSEN: It was just more excitement that I got to be back on the court. Definitely takes a toll on you when you get injured, but coming back on the court is always a great feeling. Whatever is needed for our team to win, that's what I'm here to do.

Q. Elodie, at halftime did someone say something to you to get you to come out of the gates starting 4 for 4?

ELODIE LALOTTE: Yeah, Sower definitely said something to me (laughing). I mean, I knew I started slow, so I was just ready to help the team.

Q. For Elodie, Abby, she didn't have the best night, but she also had a silent -- a decent amount of rebounds and several blocks. What did you make of her performance even though she wasn't I guess pounding the points sheet?

ELODIE LALOTTE: She's always there on defense. Like even though it doesn't show much on the court she's always there, like, getting blocks, getting rebounds. Like, she's helping in some way. Even though the shots weren't falling, she was still helping the team.

Q. Obviously, it wasn't the same as the last time you played Utah State with a 48-point victory, but what are your guys' mentality going into that game? It's not about the style points. It's win and advance. So what was, I guess, the outlook you guys came into the game tonight?

MYA HANSEN: It's tournament time. Anything can happen, so you can just control what you can control, and we just have to come on to the court and compete and give all our effort we can.

THE MODERATOR: I'll follow up with one for either one. Tonight 19 assists on 25 field goals. Good opportunity sharing the ball and succeeding with the field goal. Can you comment on the team distribution of the ball?

MYA HANSEN: I just think as a team anybody can go off at any point and score, so we just want to find the open man. When we come together and play as a whole, that's when we have the best ability to win each game.

Q. Obviously, the two losses to Colorado State earlier in the year, what are some adjustments, I guess, on the top of your mind that you can make heading into that third game?

ELODIE LALOTTE: I think we can start the game -- like, we started the game slow for both games. Just starting good from the start will help a lot and make sure we're there on defense and offense, so try to achieve on both ends of the court.

THE MODERATOR: Very good, ladies. Thank you for your time. We'll go ahead and continue with Coach.

Q. Coach, you said it wasn't important to you guys how much you won by, but the Aggies kind of kept you at arm's length. You really couldn't build your lead much more than 11 points until the end of the third quarter there. What were they doing to stick around like that?

GORDY PRESNELL: They can put some pressure on. We had a difficult time all season with turnovers, and we're really good at throwing the ball to the other team.

We have an amazingly statistical diversity. We lead the league in turnovers. We're the worst shooting free-throw team in the league, but we're the best rebounding team, the best defensive team statistically in the league.

You know, hopefully over the course of the next six months or so if we can get a little better and not throwing to the other team and keep doing what we're doing defensively and grow a little bit, we have a chance to be something special.

Q. 20-plus turnovers tonight for your team. How do you plan to, I guess, clean that up, and do you think it was just kind of abnormal of them for that?

GORDY PRESNELL: It wasn't abnormal. We're good at it. But I will tell you, you know, it's the first time in the tournament, and I don't care if there's 3,000 people or 300 people it's -- you know, you don't practice in the court, you don't practice on the rims, and everyone tries their hardest and everyone puts forth their last-gasp effort.

So it's usually pretty low-scoring and there are turnovers, and it isn't necessarily pretty. We weren't about being pretty tonight. We wanted that victory, and we wanted it bad. It's a great goal for us. Now we get to move on to other things.

Q. I'm sure you probably wanted a higher seed to finish the regular season, but do you think there's some sort of advantage to playing on day one and having Colorado State sit out?

COACH: I hope so. I always thought there wasn't a huge difference between 3 and 6 and there's a big difference between 6 and 11, but not tonight.

11 played us really tough, so we'll get ourselves ready and hopefully do some rehabbing and get ready to play tomorrow night. Colorado State presents a lot of challenges for us because they run a lot of five-out stuff, and then they just have a tremendous guard line that we've had a hard time staying in front of.

We'll regroup and study some film and get our kids ready, and we'll give it our best shot tomorrow.

Q. With the potential of playing four games in a row in four days, is there a certain strategy that you bring into the tournament in terms of giving the starters a little bit more rest early on?

GORDY PRESNELL: Tried to do a little bit of that tonight at the end of the first quarter, the end of the second quarter. We've tried to do that. We have played about nine the whole time.

You know, its kind of interesting. We don't have a single person in conference that averages in double figures, but we've had nine different people lead us in scoring, and all four freshmen have scored at least 19 points in a game.

We have a lot of work to do, but we have a lot to work with.

Q. You've won 8 out of your last 10 games. Obviously the loss to CSU just a game ago, but how much momentum are you guys bringing into tomorrow?

GORDY PRESNELL: You know, we're excited about getting a chance to play tomorrow, and we've pointed to the game, and so, you know, just something we're excited about playing. I don't know what the right word is, but it's just an opportunity to play them again, and hopefully we'll see how we do.

They're the one team that has just thumped us, and not like easily. I mean, they just thumped us, and so we'll give it our best shot.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you.

GORDY PRESNELL: Thank you.