NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - DRAKE VS COLORADO

March 22, 2024

Allison Pohlman

Katie Dinnebier

Taylor McAulay

Bramlage Coliseum

Drake Bulldogs

Media Conference

Colorado 86, Drake 72

ALLISON POHLMAN: So overall really, really excited about this team and the byproduct of what they've done the entire year. To get to 29 wins for the first time in program history I think is a really, really impressive statistic.

We would have really liked to get it to 30. But today clearly a lot of different adjustments that could have been made. Ball could have gone in the hole a little bit more, and the obvious thing about rebounding clearly did not go in our favor.

Still very, very proud of our team, but just didn't come out our way.

Q. Katie, 18 points in the first half. What did they do to slow you down in the third quarter and even the fourth quarter?

KATIE DINNEBIER: They're just a really good team, and they played like a really good team. I think our whole offense just got a little bit stagnant there in the third quarter. Our shots weren't falling, and we just didn't have an answer for that.

So I think that's something that we'll definitely learn from. But they're a good team, but I think we just have to be in a scoring mentality the whole third quarter, the whole rest of the game, and I think we kind of lost that there in the third quarter a little bit.

Q. You get off to a 9-0 lead but they kind of got it back right away. Was that a little demoralizing after you got off to such a great start, to kind of lose it in the next two or three minutes?

KATIE DINNEBIER: Demoralizing, no. I think basketball is a game of runs, and you just have to expect that from the other team. It's a game, and you see it all the time.

I think, again, they're a phenomenal team. We like to get off to a quick start. Yeah, they went on a run, but we hung with them the whole first half. I think that's something that we should be proud of.

TAYLOR McAULAY: Yeah, I mean, we knew that they were going to be a tough team from the get-go. They weren't just going to lay down. Again, like Katie said, it is a game of runs, but it's kind of how we respond to those runs. I think, again, the third quarter we kind of just looked a little lost out there, kind of back on our heels. But I think the other three quarters we played our hearts out and didn't let their runs take us out of our Drake basketball.

Q. Talk about their size advantage, not just on the rebounding but just overall. It seemed like they had bigger players at almost every position. How did that take you guys out of your game?

ALLISON POHLMAN: Well, I do think we've seen this before within our schedule. I think we've done a better job in responding to it as far as like navigating and figuring out edges and dint things of that nature. You can talk about their size, but what I would like to talk about is last year all we heard for Drake men's basketball is Drake men's basketball is the oldest team in the entire NCAA. I don't know why anybody hasn't done that for women's basketball because I think Colorado would be that team. We kept saying about the men last year that they were already collecting Social Security.

I think this very, very, very veteran Colorado team, once again, yes, size maybe, but you're also talking about a heck of a lot of experience that they've been able to put on the floor.

Q. I think 11 first half turnovers. Was that uncharacteristic for you? Besides the rebounding, that seemed to kind of put you in a little bit of a hole.

ALLISON POHLMAN: You know, in all honesty, yes, I would love to say that it is uncharacteristic. There is different times, whether it's our communication of not really being on the same page or whether whatever it is that we're responding to what the other team is doing. I think it was probably a combination of the two where we just -- a couple mishaps here and there, but back to Katie's response, which was very eloquent, and she did a phenomenal job of answering that question as far as basketball being a game of runs, we could probably have 11 turnovers but maybe still score 24 points in that quarter sort of situation.

It is, yes, uncharacteristic. I would definitely go after the rebounding side of things as far as what's very, very uncharacteristic for our squad.