NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - SOUTHERN UTAH VS NOTRE DAME

March 17, 2023

Tracy Sanders

Megan Jensen

Cherita Daugherty

Purcell Pavilion

Southern Utah Thunderbirds

Media Conference

Notre Dame, 82 - Southern Utah, 56

TRACY SANDERS: It's tough when your season comes to an end. I'm just so proud of this group and this team and how hard they have worked. And to do what we have done, we have made history over at Southern Utah. And they have kind of set the standard and left a legacy.

I'm just really proud of this group. Notre Dame is a great team. We knew it was going to be a tough game. We knew they were big. I'm proud of our fight. And you know, like I said, I couldn't be more proud of this group and what they have done this season.

Q. Megan, had you faced anything similar this year similar to what Notre Dame brought inside game wise?

MEGAN JENSEN: Nothing like number 33. We did have some good posts in our last season, and even preseason we played against Oregon and stuff that are bigs that I feel like we competed very, pretty good. We got buckets in and out in the paint and got on the guards to get it to us and come off to the screens and everything.

So we have had a lot of resilience this year, so we definitely experienced them.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Cherita and Megan.

Any questions for Coach Sanders?

Q. Coach, what do you talk to your group about when you get hit with a 16-0 start like that? How do you address that?

TRACY SANDERS: It's tough. We knew that they were going to be bigger and stronger than us. And you know, we just had to kind of settle in. You know, we needed to get some stops on the defensive end. I think they started the game with like nine out of ten they made or something crazy like that.

You can tell there was a little bit of nerves. Like I said, they're a great team. Transition wise, we were not hitting shots and they were pushing the ball pretty quickly. You know, I think we needed to buckle down and focus on the transition first, and yeah, just do our best to kind of be as physical as we could be and try to keep them out of paint and then finish it with the box out.

You know, it's tough with a team that's that big and strong too is finishing up that play and getting that box out and limiting them so they're one and done.

Q. It looked like you had little success with the zone late in the first half and then the start in the second?

TRACY SANDERS: Yeah. We have not played a lot of zone this year. We practiced it coming into this tournament actually because we thought we might need it. We are still undersized to play zone. I do feel like it slowed them down a little bit, slowed down the pace of the game a little bit and made them, you know, have to move the ball a little bit more. And it just bought us some time I feel like.

Again, we had to finish it with box outs and they got a couple offensive rebounds. I thought they adjusted to it. I felt like it was better than us player to player trying to match up with them.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you so much, Coach.