MOUNTAIN WEST WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 9, 2025

Wesley Brooks

Cheyenne Stubbs

Carlie Latta

Thomas & Mack Center

Utah State Aggies

Postgame Press Conference

Air Force - 66, Utah State - 59

WESLEY BROOKS: First of all, just want to thank our seniors for their contributions to Utah State women's basketball. So thankful for Cheyenne, thankful for Sami and Ally.

I thought it was a hard-fought became by both teams. Credit to Air Force they were able to make a few more plays at the end than we did.

I thought we played our hearts out. I thought we really, really played defensively, one of on your better games of the year. We held them to 35 percent from the field. Just didn't make enough shots. And one of our players, who was great defensively, just didn't have a basket tonight.

So that happens. And defense has to keep you in it. That's what happened tonight.

I'm very proud of our team. Proud of our resiliency because we were a very resilient bunch. And as Bill Parcells says, you are what your record says you are. But I'll disagree with him this year. We were a little bit better than that.

Q. This is a question for both you guys, you two in particular have really built a great chemistry, become a really a dynamic duo, grown together on the court. What kind of feelings are you having right now knowing that your time together is over?

CARLIE LATTA: I'm just very thankful for her. She played her heart out every night. She kind of took me under her wing. I think that's where my confidence came from, her confidence in me. It sucks and I'm going to miss her.

Q. Going off of what Coach just said, how you guys were definitely a little bit better than what your record said, Coach McIntyre from Air Force was saying it was one of the best four-win teams she's ever seen. I know there's disappointment right now, but what kind of pride do you have in the way you guys continued to fight throughout the season?

CHEYENNE STUBBS: I would say that we're a team -- you can't say that we ever gave up, I would say. And that's the resiliency that Coach Wes always talks about. No matter what's going on or what's happening, the score, our record, we're going to fight to the very end, all the way to 0-0 when the buzzer goes off. You can't say we ever gave up. That's the story for this team this year.

Q. Cheyenne, obviously feeling a lot of emotions here at the end of that game. Wondering if you could kind of describe what was going through your mind kind of throughout the game and here as you're ready to -- as this was your last game as a Utah State Aggie?

CHEYENNE STUBBS: I think I had a lot of fuel coming into this game. I feel like I should have been a part of one of the people that was nominated under the Mountain West. So that fueled me. And I wasn't really getting a lot of touches in the beginning because I was being face guarded. So I just knew that I had to put my will on the game and go get the ball and make plays.

Coach Wes trusts me with that. He knows I'm going to make good plays whether it's for myself or my teammates. That's what I did. Coming down to the wire I just didn't want to give up. I just wanted to keep going, just to leave it all out there on the floor.

I feel like I did that. And I'm proud of myself. Yeah, it sucks it's my last college game. But I'm still going to play. So that's going to be the best part.

Q. C.J., kind of the opposite for you. Coming in as a freshman, can you describe what it was like to be here playing in your first Mountain West Tournament?

CARLIE LATTA: It was a lot of fun. The big stage. I kind of came in -- I kind of like these type of moments. So I was really excited to come in here and play. And like Cheyenne said, we fought. We fought. Our shots just didn't fall very well. Sometimes that happens. I thought our defense was great tonight.

But it was fun. And our team, our energy, it was a lot of fun.

Q. Going with that communication, it seemed like you guys were communicating a lot better on both ends of the floor. That's been an emphasis throughout the season. How do you think you guys did in that regard, not only tonight but how that progressed as you guys continued to grow this year?

CHEYENNE STUBBS: I think as we progressed over the season, like, that was an emphasis. And I think that tonight we showed it by communicating on both ends of the court. I mean, we had a game plan and we stuck to that game plan on the defensive end. And like C.J. said, our shots weren't falling on the offensive end.

Q. C.J., for you, again, still just a freshman, have so much college career ahead of you. From just all the confidence that Cheyenne instilled in you and Coach Brooks and your other teammates, how is that going to help you continue to grow as you have so much time left at the college rank?

CARLIE LATTA: I think it was really great to get the confidence that I had early. All my teammates have such great confidence in each other. So getting that early, I think, in my college career is really going to boost my next three years. So I'm looking forward to that.

Q. Cheyenne, Coach has told me plenty of times this year how it's his goal, your goal, to end up playing professionally. I know right now you probably just need a lot of time to rest and reflect and think, but what will your approach be in attaining that goal moving forward?

CHEYENNE STUBBS: I'm just going to be the little fish in the pond again. I'm going to be a rookie. I'll just give it my all, work hard, gain a spot and continue to do what I do and progress as a player.

And I'm just going to be ready to work. That's going to be my mindset. And I'm going to be proactive with everything that I do. And I'm going to land somewhere. Somebody's going to get me.

Q. Air Force's largest lead was with eight and a half minutes in the second quarter at 14. What was the mindset, what was the plan going through the second quarter in the locker room, you whittled it down to a 3-point lead there at the end.

CHEYENNE STUBBS: I think we've played from behind a lot this season. So I think, once again, just not giving up and continuing to force our will. We were emphasizing just stop, score; stop, score; get a turkey. That's just what it was, and that's what we were trying to do and continue to do and just continue to fight.

CARLIE LATTA: To piggy off of Chey, we have started a lot of games down. And we are a team who knows how to fight back. Going into the locker room, we're in a good spot, we know we're going to come back. So that's kind of just what our mindset was.

Q. You had it down to three, a one-possession game, I think it was under a minute to go. You had the ball. Actually, it was probably well under a minute, maybe 30 seconds, 40 seconds, something like that. You didn't need to go for a 3 and you didn't. You ended up going for two. Ran a play for Logwood. She didn't make the bucket. Was that the option you wanted in that moment?

WESLEY BROOKS: It was not the designed play but we live with it. Taliyah Logwood was a great player. She had a great game tonight. I thought she was good defensively. We kept her out of foul trouble. Six-for-12, 3-for-4 at the free-throw line.

We'll live with it. We called something else but we'll live with it.

Taliyah is going to be -- we want her to be part of on your program. She's been great. She's overcome so much. And she's been a great student-athlete. So things happen. We'll live with it.

Q. Was option 1A to take a 3?

WESLEY BROOKS: We wanted to take a 3. We called one of our quicks. And with the quicks we wanted to get C.J. -- a shot a ball for a quick 3-point shot. C.J. hit one. They're both shooting 37% currently. We wanted to play to the numbers and let them tie it up.

We had discussed, do we want to go for two or three. As a group they all said let's go for three and tie it. Okay let's do it. But we didn't do it. That's how that went.

Q. Can you just talk for a minute about how hard it is to contain Milahnie Perry for Air Force Academy?

WESLEY BROOKS: She's good, isn't she? Credit to her. I thought we did a good job. They both lit us up when we played them this season. I thought we did a good job on Smith. Need to do a little bit better job on Perry. She's really, really good.

Credit to her. She knows how to find her shots. She knows how to get open. So, like I say, credit to her. She's a really good player.

Q. I wanted to get back to your previous comments and Coach McIntyre saying again that you guys were one of the best four-win teams she had ever seen. What did it mean from your point of view to see your team still be so committed to your vision and show up every day to work hard for you?

WESLEY BROOKS: Sails were headed in the right direction. It's tough. This is tough. You put so much time into it. You work so hard, and to not have a lot to show for your work.

We have some moments but we didn't have the ultimate. At the end of the day we're all measured by wins and losses. Part of the reason why we didn't have anybody on the all-conference team we didn't win enough. So it's tough.

But the resiliency is a character trait that will go with them. One of the things about our program is we're 4-for-40. You spent four years here we're going to prepare you for the next 40 years.

What these young ladies learn is resiliency, never-quit attitude. And that's going to take them far in life because adversity is always going to strike in life. But they can be the mom, sister or daughter that never quits and lift their family up. It's really, really good.

Q. And talking again about your two top guards that were just sitting up there with you. It was like the last four or five games of the season, they were playing 40 minutes each every game, something you rarely see at the college level. What was it like to see them come through for you time and time again and even through such a heavy load that they were carrying?

WESLEY BROOKS: Like, I kind of guard against that. That's why we didn't do it sooner. I've had other players in the past where we played them 40 minutes for 30 games. By the end of the year you get stress fractures and that type of stuff. It's not healthy.

I thought to try to give us a push, to try to win a game in the tournament to try to do it.

What we did, we really measured -- I really tried to take it easy with them in practice, make sure they had the mental reps they needed to have. We said we're just going to go for it.

They responded so well to it. As C.J. said, it's going to be a great benefit to her as we go into the offseason, you make the biggest jump from freshman to sophomore year.

(Indiscernible) Chey, it will help launch her in her pro career. Just a credit to her tonight -- at 5'6", she had 21 points, 14 rebounds. That's amazing.

We'll help her process. We'll help her, we'll sit her down with some people we know. We have a lot of connections. So we'll build those bridges and open doors for her because she's earned it.

Q. Staying on that same vein, looking at you three sitting up on that stand together -- you, C.J. and Cheyenne -- seeing C.J. and Cheyenne, it's not hard to view that as kind of the present and the future of the program. You just mentioned Chey's future and what is in store for her professionally. Wondering if you could talk a little bit more what you see in C.J. as a player and leader in this program?

WESLEY BROOKS: We've got three cornerstones. We got here late, got the job late here last year. We had to hit the ground running. We brought in nine kids. We got three freshmen and we hit on three freshmen, which is -- when you're signing nine kids and you hit on three freshmen, that's pretty good.

So we got a nice cornerstone to build on. I think Elise Livingston was great tonight -- her poise, her patience, just the steadiness she plays with.

Taliyah Logwood, we know the athleticism and what she's capable of doing, and she'll continue to grow. She did not have a summer because she was getting her stuff set academically last summer.

She'll have a summer in the program. That's weight room, film study, individual workouts. She'll be that much better.

The jump that those three will make, I think, is going to be -- with the game experience, you put that game experience behind the jump they're going to make this summer.

C.J. Latta, she's a baller, 40 minutes, 16 points. She's been passing the ball well. We can play at the pace we want to play when she's playing well.

So I think this is going to be a big summer for them. So we're just proud of what they were able to bring to bring to the table.

Jamisyn and Mia they came and brought, the savviness that a veteran having played two years junior college ball. Proud of them as well.

Q. Obviously tonight didn't go how you wanted. But overall an improvement, and especially finishing the year, great improvement from the beginning of the year. How do you feel personally in this year as a coach and in your program coming in as a first-year coach and having this season?

WESLEY BROOKS: I've had a lot of great coaches at Utah State talk to me. First of all, thankful for our administration, thankful for the people that are around us and that's around us at Utah State.

We get great support. They believe in what we're trying to do. They believe in our program. So it's been very hard. It's been very hard because I'm not used to losing. Last seven years have been in the NCAA Tournament. So that won't be the case this year.

So it's quite a change. But we're going to develop that and we're going to be an NCAA Tournament team. We're going to create a championship mindset and continue to do that.

I'm just thankful for our administrators, Diana and Bobby, and thankful for the coaches, Jerrod, all the other coaches from all the other sports, volleyball, gymnastics, softball, just everybody is texting me: You've got it going; you'll be all right.

Thankful for the Utah State community. It's not like that many places. So Logan is a special place. We have special people. And we're going to bring championships home at some point. So we have a championship-minded focus.

I'm thankful that I can be around that. If that's the focus and that's the mindset, you have no problem, you have no worries; you come to work you improve and get better, because that's what champions do.

Q. Moving in both this offseason and just in the future, what is your plan, what do you think you can do to become that NCAA Tournament team, that championship team that you'd like to become?

WESLEY BROOKS: A lot of stuff is personnel-driven. Obviously we're not big like we need to be. We need to go get bigger post players. The way we want to shoot the ball, we have to get some people who can shoot the ball, more consistently and as well as continue to develop that.

So it's just about personnel. So we play the hand that we were dealt. And so that's -- I thought we played it as well as we could play it. We'll continue to get better, you know what I mean?

I trust what we can do in recruiting. I trust our connections. I trust our network. I trust our staff. So that's how we will improve.