AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 7, 2023

Lisa Stockton

Dynah Jones

Dickies Arena

Tulane Green Wave

Postgame Press Conference

East Carolina - 69, Tulane - 58

THE MODERATOR: We would like to welcome Tulane. We'll start with an opening statement from coach and then take questions.

LISA STOCKTON: Well, the first half was tough for us. I just didn't feel like we, I don't feel like we did a lot of things well in the first half. We turned the ball over too much, and just really rattled offensively.

Second half really happy with our effort. I thought we came back and really fought, did a good job taking care of the ball, we rebounded well, got some run-outs for layups. Just a really a big effort to come back from that. I think we just ran out of steam. We just kind of ran out of steam in that last quarter.

But I definitely think, I give East Carolina a lot of the credit. The two players we were really zoning in on didn't have, didn't miss their score a lot. Some other players scored for East Carolina, and they did a tremendous job of stepping up when other people weren't. So I give them a lot of credit for that. I think they're a good team. They could make a good run.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. We'll take some questions.

Q. Looking at a 19-point hole in the third quarter there and you come back and get it to one, how hard is it when you get it to that point then to keep going with that and get it over the next hump? What was some of the challenges for you there?

LISA STOCKTON: I think we tied it, didn't we? Didn't we tie it in that second half? Yeah. I felt like we just needed a few things to go our way. Once we tied it, I could tell at least the team was loosening up a lot. We just missed a couple shots there and they made some plays there and then the game got away again. Then it was hard to make a second comeback.

But I'm proud of our team how they did it. I thought we did it with defense. We got some run outs and we played tough right there and that's hard to do, so I'm proud of them about that.

I was just saying, I kind of felt like we were going to get it when we tied it. I felt like we were going to kind of steal it from 'em because we were kind of rolling on that, but we just couldn't finish it out.

Q. Is there any benefit either way, East Carolina hadn't played in a while, they had the bye week in the last week of the regular season and then you got a game in yesterday, do you view that as a factor at all, their rest versus you're being able to get the bugs out?

LISA STOCKTON: Well, I mean, I think it can work for you or against you. It just depends on your team, whether, you know, sometimes you don't play for awhile, you're not in rhythm, so that's part of it too.

But I thought, again, the thing that impressed me the most with them is the players that really aren't averaging a lot of points came up and got the points tonight. You got Dennis and Johnson and they're the ones who scored. We really had zeroed in on Joiner and McNeal. So when those players came up, I mean, maybe there's things in practice or things like that that they got better in, but I thought they were really focused and those kids came to play.

Q. Can you step back a little bit and just kind of look at the league in general. We're going to have a tournament here that's going to have a first-time champion. We have seen some of the teams, Memphis and East Carolina, Wichita State that have not been in a position to challenge for a championship that are now and potentially a lot of teams that are in post-season consideration, including yourselves for other championship. What do you assess the growth of the conference and where it stands now relative to, you've been here throughout?

LISA STOCKTON: Well, I really thought the conference last year, we'll start with last year, was the best it had been, obviously without UConn. But it was one of the best it had been top to bottom. I thought it was really good. We had a lot of fifth year seniors and that, and I thought we had a really good team and it was a struggle. I thought it was really good.

This year a lot of transfers have come in and I think made it strong again. I thought it was really competitive all year. You look at, besides South Florida, and they didn't go undefeated, so there's a lot of teams that beat other teams. It was really competitive. You look at the upsets early.

So I thought it was really good. Very defensive-oriented. I thought last year a probably a little more offense. But it's a good league. You look at it, we're around sixth or seventh best league in the country and it's really good. So I think you got to come every night and play. It's good for our league to have a new champion, in my opinion. I was just hoping it was going to be us. But it's great. I think it gets more excitement to the league. It's not the same schools and I just think it creates that little competitive edge.

Q. Dynah, if you could just talk about your performance tonight. You've been through the wars here for several years now. How did this game tonight, this tournament, kind of compare with what you've seen here in the past?

DYNAH JONES: I thought in the second half we really came out and we really fought. I think that we really tried to use that momentum. But like Coach said, they went on a run, they hit big shots and we couldn't punch again. So, yeah.

LISA STOCKTON: I just want to say one thing. Dynah just broke a record today for most games played at Tulane. And it is just, it's been a joy to coach her. So I hope I get another game to coach her. But I think that one of the things with COVID is you get to have some kids in your program for a long time. And we've been really fortunate. And Dynah was one of those kids really over the last year she was never going to leave Tulane and she wanted to lead this team. It's another reason I want this team to get to post-season, because we really have a lot to replace, but I really want Dynah to lead this team to post-season. I think that would be special. Right?