PAC-12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 6, 2024

Tina Langley

Dalayah Daniels

Lauren Schwartz

Washington Huskies

Postgame Press Conference

Arizona - 58, Washington - 50

TINA LANGLEY: I'm just so proud of this team. I think we battled all season. Night in, night out, been in the fight all season, through a lot of different circumstances. I love the character of this group and the way they battle for one another and for the university.

I thought Arizona -- well, the two of us have played some games, two great defensive battles -- I thought they won that defensive battle today, and that comes down to my ability to be able to get us better looks. So I think the girls played incredibly hard, and I also think that Arizona did a great job defensively.

A lot of growth from this, and excited to continue playing and getting better this season.

Q. What did you guys see in the third and fourth quarter that made your shots more difficult, or what did they do defensively to change things?

TINA LANGLEY: I think they just do a great job of switching aggressively and playing denial defense. So if you slip or you make your traditional reads, they use great athleticism and length to make it a little bit more difficult. I think we needed to play with a little better pace. But credit to them for that.

Q. Can the players talk about that, too? What did you guys think about the match-up? Coach was right -- those first two games went down to the wire both times. This one again the same thing. What's it like playing this team?

LAUREN SCHWARTZ: They're such a great team defensively, like Coach said. It's hard to get in the flow of our offense and sets a little bit. But I thought they just brought it from start to finish. And it was just hard to get into stuff.

DALAYAH DANIELS: Yeah, I thought the same thing. I also thought it was just really hard to get open, but credit to Arizona for switching well. They made it tough for us to get on the offense. But credit to us for still fighting through it, not giving up.

Q. You guys are down 11, Dalayah, and have a nice comeback. You make the 3 and you make some stops. Just talk about the momentum you built during that rally?

DALAYAH DANIELS: I didn't hit the 3. Someone else did.

LAUREN SCHWARTZ: I did. I just think our defense gave us a little bit of momentum. I think they weren't scoring and we were getting stops and we were transitioning fast. I think that's what got us our momentum back and going.

Q. This conference is so, so good, so strong. Do you think that Arizona is a tournament team?

TINA LANGLEY: I think that we play in the NCAA Tournament every night in the Pac-12. This is a great conference, and every single time you line up you're playing a team with a high NET, with a great strength of schedule, with tremendous athletes and tremendous coaches.

And so we talked about that all season. We started really strong. We, again, hit teams that were competitively -- competing across the country successfully. So, yeah, no doubt many of the teams, including Arizona, are.

Q. Going off that, as strong as the conference is right now and as much history as there is here, I know it's not the focus right now, but are there any emotions around this being the last Pac-12 Tournament as we know, it and just what it means to be part of that with how much the conference has meant to women's basketball?

TINA LANGLEY: Great question. This has been a tremendous conference. I've only been here a short time. And the short time I've been here, it's been a tremendous opportunity and experience. The people in the Pac-12 have been incredibly kind. Basketball is the highest level. And so it's been an honor to be a part of.