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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 10, 2006

DENVER, COLORADO

THE MODERATOR: We'll begin with UNLV, joined by head coach Regina Miller, Nejlah Clark and Brittney Thomas. Coach, if you want to just begin with some general comments.
COACH REGINA MILLER: Well, I thought we didn't play well enough obviously to beat this team this afternoon. We probably, when I think of 40 minutes in a ball game, we probably played, I don't know, 12, 15 minutes total. Obviously that's not enough to beat a very good team, disciplined Utah team.
But I thought two guards battled really hard two of the senior guards and, that's why I brought them in with me today, and that is Nejlah Clark and Brittney Thomas. You can't come out in a game with only six assists and a lot more turnovers, in order to have again a success against a team like Utah. If you don't score at the offensive end, they're going to find a way to score win their motion. They move a lot. You don't catch them standing very often, other than when the ball is dead. So they beat us a couple times on some back screens and some dribble penetration to the basket. And that really hurt us, and we didn't score when they scored.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks coach. Questions for the es.
Q. For the two players, what was the problem making shots today? Very simple question. Is there a simple answer?
BRITTNEY THOMAS: I'll say specifically rhythm, not being in the rhythm, in the flow of the game. In the beginning it's hard. You try to find a rhythm, get going. And as time goes on, you start to think more about your shot.
And I think that's -- had a lot to do with our some of players. And also forcing shots. Instead of shooting directly in the flow of our offense, we put up some forced shots, some tough shots, which hurt us in the end.
Q. Nejlah, you came in that first half and kind of gave the Rebels some enthusiasm and tenacity on defense. Talk about your playing today?
NEJLAH CLARK: I think it was important for me to come out and give intensity on defense because I think that's what our team needed at the time. The team seemed down on defense. I felt whenever I was going to get in, I was going to give them whatever they needed at that time, whether it was defense, whether its was rebounding, just someone talking to them. I tried to make sure that transferred to them.
Q. Maybe for both of you athletes. It seems like intensity wasn't there in the second half. I know Utah, they changed the pace of the game a bit. I didn't see that second half like you guys had in the first half. Do you agree or what was the difference?
BRITTNEY THOMAS: I'll agree. I believe, like you said, when Nejlah came in, we dictated the flow of the game. We made some stops but didn't necessarily convert on all of them. As the second half came around we didn't dictate as we did in the first half. And it showed. It really did show. And it was a come-out. It came out like that.
Q. For both players, both young players in this program. How important is it to be hopefully playing next week to continue your development? How important will playing somewhere next week, whether it's in the NCAA or the NIT, be for both of your development?
NEJLAH CLARK: I think it's very important. Hopefully we're playing in the NCAA tournament next week. I think that's the key right there. I hope the selection committee look at our games and see the losses we had, we was in all of these games. And we didn't play Rebel basketball. It's not like we lost playing Rebel basket. We lost because we beat ourselves.
Q. From a development standpoint, is it important to get more court time more advanced experienced playing?
BRITTNEY THOMAS: Definitely. We're seniors. We want to go out strong for the youth. It's important for them to get a taste of it. And maybe next year or the years to come with Coach Miller, they can go to the tournament, so be it, and be successful.
THE MODERATOR: Ladies, we'll let you two go. Thanks very much.
Questions for Coach Miller.
Q. Do you fully expect to be playing next week somewhere, someplace?
COACH REGINA MILLER: Yes. Definitely.
Q. Have you done enough to maybe get an at-large NCAA bid even though you lost today or does this put you in a precarious bubble position?
COACH REGINA MILLER: You know, our league is strong enough. The last time we went to the NCAA tournament, they took four teams. So, to take 'chance' out the picture, it would have been nice to somehow pull off -- I guess it would have been considered another upset against Utah today and get ourselves into a championship game, to try to win that. And that's only the way to take chance out, obviously win it and play your way in. Without two wins against New Mexico, being a top 25 team, within a week I would think the selection committee will look at our league overall and see, geez that's a strong league.
There's a lot of competitive teams. I felt all along, any one of six of us could win this tournament. And today we simply didn't play well enough to beat Utah. So, you certainly hope so that we'll be playing next week, and perhaps we'll maybe get four or five teams into the NCAA tournament. Other leagues have done it. If I'm not mistaken, I think we're ranked either fifth or sixth out of 32 conferences, and that's pretty good. I would be concerned if we were 10, 11 or 12.
Q. Why was it such a problem making shots today from your perspective?
COACH REGINA MILLER: Yeah, well, I thought we missed a lot of chippers around the basket, some layups. Some were with contact but you have to finish through contact. We practiced all year with contact drills, and you got to be able to finish and make the play. And hopefully the official will blow the whistle. And if they do, it's a bonus. I thought we missed some chippers.
I thought we gave up some easy looks within our offense, slow jump shots, and created a tougher shot for ourselves by overpenetrating. As BT said, we didn't really have any rhythm in what we were doing offensively. As a coach that's a bit frustrating because you're on the side and you can't really control that.
I thought a key point in the game for us is that we battle to take the lead late in the first half, and then we lost that last segment going into the half. It was about three minutes and 45 seconds to go, and we just didn't perform. I inserted Nikki Hitchens. We missed some key check-outs. I thought Utah was able to keep the momentum or hurt us. We worked hard, you know, 27 seconds per session, and then you give up the offensive board. You miss a check-out, and that hurt.
Coming out the half, we were only down 3 regardless. We had the ball and didn't -- we had two possessions where we didn't score and had an opportunity, and then they came down and scored I think two possessions. To me that's like an eight-point swing.
Q. Why has this team had trouble putting together 35 minutes of intense basketball?
COACH REGINA MILLER: Well, we have going down the stretch here. I really felt like we're peaking at the right time. And we put together, I thought, 39 minutes at TCU. You lose on point-nine-tenths of a second because of offensive rebounding get you into overtime with 3 starters out. But we bounced back. I thought we played very tough again against New Mexico, and that was probably our best team effort in the last five or six games, was against New Mexico. We needed that type of effort today and it didn't happen.
It's tough. Sometimes you just can't put your finger on it. If so, I probably would have written a book by now and be a millionaire.
Q. Can you talk about the job Sequoia did?
COACH REGINA MILLER: I thought Kameca did an outstanding job on her. Sequoia Holmes did okay. She probably struggled because she pressed because she wanted to do so well against Kim. But overall I thought Kameca Simmons did a nice job, but then Thorburn stepped up and hurt us. Those players played 40 minutes a game consistently all year. They're the heart and soul of Utah. And they really stepped up today. And Thorburn I thought late in the second half, actually midway to late in the second half, she really took over the game. And she took over the game either by setting her teammates up or dribble penetrating herself and making some plays around the basket. She ended up with 8 assists. We can't give that up to her.
Q. (No microphone.)
COACH REGINA MILLER: The last time we had something like that, McCracklin went down in Wyoming. And that was an injury. We didn't take a warm-up, we ended up losing by three. We probably lead the majority of that game at Wyoming. We wanted to get some warm-up time.
Things like that happen. You just got to adjust and you know go with the flow. We actually were able to come back and take a lead at that point. Again, like I said, we just didn't perform well going into the half. That last segment of the half really hurt us. But still we had an opportunity coming out the half; we just didn't take advantage of that. Against a good team, you can't go too many possessions and not execute. It will hurt you every time.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, coach.

End of FastScripts...

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