MOUNTAIN WEST WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 7, 2023

Stacie Terry-Hutson

Abby Prohaska

Sophia Ramos

Thomas & Mack Center

San Diego State Aztecs

Postgame Press Conference

UNLV 71, San Diego State 68

THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and continue with San Diego State. Joining Coach Stacie Terry-Hutson will be Sophia Ramos and Abby Prohaska.

Coach will make opening remarks and then we'll address questions to the student-athletes. Coach, please go ahead.

STACIE TERRY-HUTSON: Proud of our team. We battled tonight. It's a good UNLV team. You know, playing on their home floor. I thought our kids really battled until the end.

A couple of calls go our way, I think it's a different outcome, but they have a really good team. I just am proud of our girls. Proud of our girls. They battled.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Both of you hit huge threes in the fourth quarter after I don't think you made a three the first three quarters. Just take us through those last, you know, 26 seconds when you guys were just unconscious, and what was going through your mind?

SOPHIA RAMOS: We had used all of our timeouts, so we knew it was kind of time to go. It was a couple possession game, and we knew twos were going to pull us closer, but threes were going to be a difference-maker.

They went under a screen. I had hit a couple, and so I just stepped into a rhythm three. You know, that one felt good going off. It was just reading the defense. You know, it was deep, so I don't blame them for going under, but right time. I was ready for that one.

ABBY PROHASKA: I think it was just a dog mentality when you get to a game like that, fourth quarter. You kind of just lose all sight of your surroundings, and you turn into a different beast.

I think the five that were on the court especially, we knew what we needed to do. We had a really poor third quarter, and if that went a little bit differently this wouldn't have been the outcome.

But you can't go back and change that, so I think we just kind of dug our heels into the ground and did everything that we could, and, unfortunately, it just came up short.

THE MODERATOR: I'll add on to that. In the third quarter, what got away from you in the third quarter, in that part of the game?

SOPHIA RAMOS: We just weren't making shots. Just looking at it, we were 3 for 13 overall; 0 for 1 from three; 2 for 4 from the free-throw line. I mean, everything else you see, like, we were hitting everything. It was just that quarter, and it was a bad quarter because then they started hitting everything.

So it was just, you know -- we wish we could go back and get some of those back, but you can't. I'm just so proud of the fight we had in that fourth quarter. Almost 30 points is insane.

Q. For both of you guys, what do you say to somebody who says, hey, you guys played them close. I know you didn't come here to play them close. I mean, there's got to be some disappointment right now, just the fact -- the realization that you had a shot to beat them, and you knew you could, but it just didn't happen.

ABBY PROHASKA: Yeah, there's definitely a little bit of disappointment, but I think like what Soph said, like you can't be that pissed when you played so hard, and I know that everybody on this team, like, gave everything they had.

Going back to that third quarter, if it was just different, again, it wouldn't have been the outcome that it was. But we fought, we stayed together. There were many times when we could have turned in it on one-on-one basketball, but we always came back to each other and our game and our discipline.

That's just an area we've been trying to grow in the entire season, so it was nice to see that we didn't fold.

There was a lot of pressure, and we really relied on the older seniors and veterans that have been with us.

SOPHIA RAMOS: Yeah, this one stings, right? It was a three-point game. It ended up being a three-point game. The last couple were six, so I guess we were a little closer. But you don't win anything, right? We still lost.

But I'm just so proud of us. You know, we dug ourselves into a nice little hole that third quarter, and like Abby said, we didn't fold. We responded to the adversity. We bought in. The veteran leadership really stepped up.

Abby was huge for us coming off the bench again, and then Pepe, Sarah, and Alex, they were big for us as well. You can't ask for much more from everyone. Nobody played a perfect game, so, for sure be disappointed. This one stung. We really wanted it, but I'm very proud with everything we did.

THE MODERATOR: Any further questions for the student-athletes?

Ladies, thank you.

We'll go ahead and continue with Coach.

Questions for Coach?

Q. Coach, it almost came down to your free-throw defense again. I know that's not really a statistic that you can do anything about, but teams has made an incredible amount of free-throws against you this year. I think you were 360th in the country. It would have been nice if they could have missed a couple, right?

STACIE TERRY-HUTSON: Yeah. You know, there was a crucial point in that stretch where we gave up an O-board and they fouled, and then we gave up the free-throw O-board. I think the rebounding was the difference.

I mean, they have some really good kids that do a great job hitting first, so the offensive rebounding we knew was going to be a key. We needed to stay close, and we let that get away from us. That was one of the keys.

If you look at the stat sheet, I mean, we played them really tight everywhere else. I mean, we beat them points off turnovers, points in the paint, which we knew were going to be huge because they have an All-star center. We're even. The biggest difference was the free-throw line.

So they made 23 and we made 7, so when you shoot 33, you're going to have a good opportunity to make a couple.

Q. Stacie, what's your expectation for the WNIT?

STACIE TERRY-HUTSON: You know, I feel good about it. I think we've put a good body of work together. Our nonconference was really strong. I think we're in the 90s, if not 80s in the net, so I think that we have a good shot to get a bid there.

Hoping that we can host a couple, but this is a really good basketball team, and they deserve a couple more games. So they're confident. They work really hard, and they stayed together all season, so I'm hoping we can play a couple more.

Q. Your thoughts on the third quarter? Then, also, after you speak to the third quarter, what you did in the fourth quarter to get back into it.

STACIE TERRY-HUTSON: The third quarter, I'm going back and forth whether or not I should have called a timeout. We just kind of let it get away from us.

They went on that 6-0 run and I called that timeout. And, you know, we got good shots; I mean, we just didn't make them.

It wasn't that we were panicking. They just didn't go down. We weren't able to really shut them down either.

I mean, our goal is to hold them at 14 every quarter, and I think they got 17, so it wasn't so much our defense. We just couldn't execute on the offensive end.

Then in the fourth quarter I thought they had a lot of poise. I mean, we were sending a lot in every timeout. We were trying to set up our offense and our defense, and the offense after that, and our girls did a really good job executing on the fly.

Some of those calls I was calling in from the sideline, the three that Sophia hit was a call. She made the right read when they went underneath, and I was just calling that in. Proud of them being able to execute.

But, I mean, anyone that's followed us all year, this is the best group I've ever had, and we play really hard. I knew they weren't going to give in no matter what the score was.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

STACIE TERRY-HUTSON: Thank you, guys.