AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 11, 2024

Angie Nelp

Temira Poindexter

Dickies Arena

Tulsa Golden Hurricane

Postgame Press Conference

East Carolina - 75, Tulsa - 71

THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and get started with an opening statement from coach and then take questions for the student-athletes.

ANGIE NELP: Yeah, sure. First of all, I just, it didn't turn out the way we had hoped or the way we wanted, but I'm really proud of our team's fight, I'm really proud of the way that we kept fighting in the face of some challenges in that game. Obviously, it took us a minute to just find our rhythm once the game started, and we kind of dug ourselves a hole a little bit and felt like we were playing catchup most of the game. Just ran out of time there at the end.

I thought Temira had an excellent game. I thought she really displayed the way that she can score all over the floor. She scored around the rim, she got to the free-throw line, and she hit threes. She really did a great job. I thought we got really good production from a couple of our bench players, with Amira Brown and Elise Hill, that came in early off the bench and really gave us some good minutes.

I felt like we did didn't shoot the ball as well as we normally would shoot the ball. I felt that we were always trying to kind of get that next shot, and we would make a push and we would get a run. Then, that next thing wouldn't fall, and then we maybe would give up a coverage here or there and they would be able to score.

Really proud of our team. Really proud of our team to fight and be able to have the opportunity that they had this week as well, and excited for just learning and growing from this opportunity with our team. We didn't do everything well, there were some things that we can look back and we can see that we did well. We're going to look back and we're going to see things and we already know things that we're going to need to learn and grow from this experience.

THE MODERATOR: All right, coach, thank you. Questions, please?

Q. You mentioned the struggles early shooting. How much of that do you think is impacted by -- you have the double bye, which is a benefit with the rest -- but a little, I mean, rust factor with that as well?

ANGIE NELP: Yeah, that's always part of the game, coming into that. I felt like yesterday and the day before that we had some really good practices. I felt like our team was in a good shooting rhythm with where we are. I felt like early on we were really excited and you could tell. We rushed some of our shots. But once we settled back into our rhythm, I felt like we took really good shots. I didn't think that we looked back and we -- you're going to see contested forced shots. I think you're going to look back and see good shots that we normally make that just didn't fall for us today.

Q. Coach, obviously not the result you wanted today, but do you -- and the game obviously just ended, but do you have a chance to kind look at what you did this year? Obviously, the reason the job came open for you years ago was not because Tulsa was at the top of the league, right? So the progression that you've made through your years, and Temira as well, maybe could speak to this as well, how far the program has come and can you take some pride in what happened this year?

ANGIE NELP: Yeah, like I said, with our team, I felt like we really earned that opportunity that we got coming into this tournament. You saw us all year. We dealt with some different injuries and we had a team that really stayed together. We have a team that really pushed through and found a lot of success and earned a lot of that success this year that put us in a great position coming into the tournament. I feel like that from a program standpoint, we're trending in the right direction, for sure, and it's because of players like Temira Poindexter, Delanie Crawford, we have players that are wholeheartedly bought into our culture, they're wholeheartedly bought into those things within our program that we believe create winning and our love and our trust and our work. And we know that we have a higher mountain to climb, that there's greater heights that we can reach, and we believe if we stay true to the course and if we continue to learn and grow from heart breaking moments like these today, you continue to do that, our program will continue to go in the right direction. We want to be a program that competes for championships. We didn't do today what it took to be able to do that, but I think we have players that are every bit bought in and poured in to what we're doing to be able to do that in the future.

Q. Temira, can you, in a similar vein, can you look at, Player of the Year in the conference, regular season conference championship, No. 1 seed. Overall, when you look back at this year, what will your memory of it be?

TEMIRA POINDEXTER: I feel like this year it was a lot different from last year. I think our team was very bought in. The newcomers that came in, I felt they did a great job coming in and just taking on their role and just playing as hard as they can. I think over the past three years since I've been at Tulsa, we've grown each year and more and more each year. This wasn't the outcome that we wanted, but I think this will -- I know it will -- we're going to grow from this moment and we're going to come back next year even better.

THE MODERATOR: All right, thank you.