NCAA WOMEN'S FINAL FOUR

April 6, 2003

Alana Beard

Gail Goestenkors

Kara Lawson

COACH GAIL GOESTENKORS: Congratulations to Tennessee. I thought they did an outstanding job. I know it wasn't a pretty game, I thought it was a tremendous game, very hard fought, I think both teams did an excellent job defensively. And unfortunately for us we hit a stretch where we couldn't hit shots and they pounded the ball inside. We really had no answer. Gwen Jackson played a phenomenal game for them. She was exceptional and they got to the free throw line and made there free throws. So I just give them all of the credit in the world. I thought they did a great job.

ALANA BEARD: That's when we needed buckets. I figured that if I were to attack they weren't going to foul. They would have slowed the game down. I tried to attack but they were denying the wings. Every time I drove in I had the open shots.

SHEANA MOSCH: Well, you know we are just so happy to be able to play with a player like Alana who can do something as incredible as she did tonight, that she has done all season long but, you know, you can't win a basketball game with one person scoring all the points. We have known that all year long and Alana has never tried to take on that roll for this team. But I know that we definitely needed other people to step up and spread out the scoring. I mean it didn't happen, but, you know, my heart goes out to Alana for giving so much for us.

ALANA BEARD: I definitely thought that the shot at the end would give us the momentum. Thinking back to the last game that we played, Iciss hit a shot at the end, it gave us a lot of momentum. I'm sorry, what was the other question?

ALANA BEARD: I never thought we lost the momentum. I thought as a team we continued to fight our way through. We kept working hard. I don't think it was at one point we every gave up. I'm so proud of my team. My teammates and my coaching. My teammates never gave up, they kept fighting.

COACH GAIL GOESTENKORS: We went to a 2-2-1 back into a 3-2 zone. We just wanted to change the momentum a little bit. Tennessee is so good when they get comfortable with your defense they do a good job of picking it apart. We wanted to change things up a bit and give them a different look.

COACH GAIL GOESTENKORS: Well, I think, you know, it's hard for me to believe we only went 6 time. You saw how aggressive Alana Beard was to the basket. No one was more aggressive than her. We needed some other players to be more aggressive. Lindsey Harding drove to the basket then she stopped. It was a combination of things. Then we add fouls at the end. That account for a few of the free throws for Tennessee.

COACH GAIL GOESTENKORS: I will go back after the season and look at the tapes and see if there is one thing in particular. I know the defenses we have faced have been very, very good. We didn't get our transition game going. I have to figure out why that is, because I feel like we are playing good defense. But we were not attacking the transition the way that we had in the past and then we've got some players that, you know, weren't scoring the way they did during the season. So we need to figure out what's going on with them. If it's physical, if we don't have them in the right place or if it's mental. They were too stressed out to hit the shots that they have been hitting all year long so we will figure it out. We got a long time to figure it out now.

COACH GAIL GOESTENKORS: Totally different last year. They were a little bit satisfied getting here with only 8 players and you know, I just remember being very, very proud of the team and we were proud. We were upset, but it didn't hurt deep, deep inside. We were disappointed. Tonight we hurt, you know. Our expectations have risen with this team and so, you know, the hurt is going to raise as well.

COACH GAIL GOESTENKORS: Thank you. Thanks for noticing. Just talked about the fack that I was very, very proud of them. That this defeat does not change the season we had. We broken so many records, Duke records, ACC records. In my mind we played like champions. The only thing I ever ask of my team is that they play as hard as they possibly can. And they did that tonight. We played our hearts out. We didn't always play smart but we played hard and that's all I ask of my team. We played hard I was proud of them. I thanked my seniors, they done a great job. They had a tremendous career, great leaders and people and our program. And I wanted everybody else returning to remember this moment, remember the feeling because we got a lot of work to do for next year. Thank you very much.