MOUNTAIN WEST WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 8, 2023

Tess Barnes

Heather Ezell

Quinn Weideman

Thomas & Mack Center

Wyoming Cowgirls

Postgame Press Conference

UNLV 71, Wyoming 60

THE MODERATOR: We have Quinn Weidemann and Tess Barnes with coach. Go ahead and make a remark about tonight's game.

HEATHER EZELL: First off, congratulations to UNLV. That's a really good team that is going to represent the Mountain West really well in the NCAA tournament, but I've got a group here that I am so proud of. I'm lucky to be their coach.

It didn't fall our way, but I've got a team that's still ready to fight and still ready to come every day and ready to go. That's what I love about coaching this team.

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

Q. Quinn, I mean, obviously it was a tough matchup with Young. Fertig got in foul trouble. Was that the key to the game? Fertig obviously had to sit for a while there.

QUINN WEIDEMANN: Yeah, I think so. I think that she had a really good game, obviously. Allyson getting in foul trouble, it hurt. I think it kind of got her cold on the bench too.

You know, I think Marta and Grace did the best that they could to step up being undersize and stuff like that, but yeah.

Q. You guys had it raining threes there in the third quarter to get back in the game and cut it to one. What do you think the difference was in the fourth quarter?

QUINN WEIDEMANN: I just think that we couldn't get as many stops as we were scoring, and it hurt us.

Q. Tess, what is this experience going to do for you going forward to play in these type of games against competition like that?

TESS BARNES: Oh, wow. It's a big eye opener for how aggressive it is and how hard you have to practice day in and day out. Quinn and Tommi have shown it all year that you have to be there every day and be ready to play no matter what.

Q. Quinn, I know your goal was to win an NCAA tournament game this year. What's your motivation in terms of making a run with this young team, you know, in the WNIT?

QUINN WEIDEMANN: I think it's going to be fun. A lot of times we get home games for WNIT, and it's comforting knowing that we did the work early this season that we get to play postseason.

THE MODERATOR: We'll allow them to stay. If there's anything else we need to ask them we can. Coach, go ahead with questions.

Q. Heather, someday Fertig will be a senior, and have a that savvy senior like Young, and may be able to maybe manipulate the refs and that sort of thing and just angles and all of that. What will she take away from this experience and playing against Young, who is obviously a veteran?

HEATHER EZELL: I told the whole team after this game, this is something we want to make sure we remember. You kind of put it in that memory bank and use it as motivation.

I know the one kid that 100 percent no doubt will is Allyson Fertig. This game will make her better. This won't be the last time that she'll play in a championship game and that experience.

Like I said, she'll remember this and she'll have that chip on her shoulder for the rest of her career.

Q. In your time in the Mountain West there's been some really good teams, but UNLV has won 22 in a row. What makes them so hard to beat? What was the key to trying to do that that didn't work out for you guys?

HEATHER EZELL: They're a very disciplined team. They're a very well-coached team. They're going to run a lot of different sets, and they know where the ball is supposed to go and when the time is right.

The thing about it is we said we've got to be really, really at our best to play against a team like that. We were really good except for just a couple of parts where we were able to -- we got in foul trouble early; definitely bothered us.

So we had to change our motion a little bit without Allyson in there. When we have to make some changes like that, that hurts us, as in the big picture. So just being able to compete with a team like that, I think we were right there.

In the end in that fourth quarter when we needed to make a couple of more shots or get a couple more stops, they were the team that were able to kind of pull away.

Q. I realize this just ended and the emotions are still high, but looking forward, what a run in the WNIT would mean for this group?

HEATHER EZELL: We talked about it as Tommi and Quinn don't deserve to go out like this. They deserve to go out on top. We've got to make sure that we have the focus coming back when we get back next week that we're going, hey, we've got to send them out the right way. I've said this for a while now. What these two have done for this program I can never repay.

When you look back and there's Cowgirl toughness written somewhere, there's a picture of Tommi and Quinn right next to it. Now I ask the rest of the team who wants their pictures next to it, and that's the challenge for the next three weeks.

Q. Heather, obviously you're away from the team for eight weeks in the middle of the season, and then coming back making this run in the conference tournament with the two back-to-back freshmen of the year, how exciting -- what's the excitement like for you looking ahead in the future?

HEATHER EZELL: Well, first I want to answer that first part of it going, yep, I missed eight weeks. I apologized to the team for this because they deserved to have me here the whole year, and these seniors deserved to have me.

I told them I'm sorry I wasn't able to be here for their last run here. But at the same time, we got three more weeks to finish it and I can make it up to them hopefully, and we can make a run at another championship in the WNIT or whatever we might get.

Just so proud of the way this team has competed all year. Whether I've been there or not, the way that this team has come to practice every day, showed up for games, the staff has got them ready. There's no doubt about that. Like I said, we're ready to finish out. We're not done yet.

THE MODERATOR: I would like to follow up with a question for the student-athletes. Especially for you, Quinn. What do you see from this group moving forward? You've had three sophomores tonight put in over 20 minutes. You had a freshman who put in 37. Just the amount of minutes and what this group has to build forward.

QUINN WEIDEMANN: I think they have a bright future. Like Heather said, I don't think this will be any of their last time in a championship game.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

HEATHER EZELL: Thank you.