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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 2, 2007Pam BortonEmily FoxKelly RoyslandBreanna SalleyINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA THE MODERATOR: We will open it up with an opening statement from Coach Borton and then go to the student athletes. COACH PAM BORTON: I thought we dug ourselves a hole at the beginning of the game and I was very proud of our team and our kids for playing with the heart and the tenacity that they did to cut the game to five points. The senior leadership really stepped up towards the end of the game when Rene Haynes came out of the timeout to run and hit two straight baskets and scored seven straight points there I think it was. I felt like the difference of the game was obviously our post play with the turnovers and the lack of production that we had inside on the offensive end. It made it a little more difficult for us to score from the perimeter. Again, I was very pleased with the heart and the effort that our kids played with and coming back from being down by 19, and hopefully got some basketball left here yet in the postseason to play. Q. Kelly and Emily, what do you think the reason was for the slow start? KELLY ROYSLAND: You know, I'm not quite sure. I think that we turned the ball over. We wanted to make pulse presence right away, try to get into the pulse and kind of start off with that. It just seemed like we either didn't deliver them a good pass and they bobbled the ball, and also DeHaan hit a couple shots off the bat; she played a great game and I think she kind of jump-started their offense. Like you said, we dug ourselves a hole right away, and once again, turnovers kind of bit us in the butt. But that's kind of what it has been like all year. Like I said, I'm proud of this team. This has been a great year and I hope to continue it in some sort of tournament and postseason play. EMILY FOX: Maybe we were a little too excited. The posts, we tried to get in -- and like Coach said, the turnovers, we just dug ourselves too deep. We couldn't get out of it. Q. Kelly, what allowed you guys to get your outside game going in the last seven or eight minutes when you couldn't get it going before that? KELLY ROYSLAND: I think we started to have more focus on getting the ball into the corners and that baseline runner. Once I started around the baseline I was able to get a few open looks. That definitely helped, and once I was able to knock down a few shots it kind of boosted the team's confidence and got us going. Unfortunately, at the other end they made a couple big buckets, we fouled, different things like that. But I think it was just executing our offense more, getting the ball in the corners. It's what we talked about doing, but we didn't execute it as well as we wanted to early in the game. I think that was the difference. Q. Question for Breanna. It seemed like your attitude got going after Allyssa offensively, kind of helped the rest of the team get back into it. Can you talk about the mentality you need to have against a player of that size? BREANNA SALLEY: I think that's just part of my role on this team is to bring a little bit of energy when my team needs it the most. You know, I might not score 20 points a game, but energy and just starting chipping away is what really brought our confidence up. And I think that once you start to get into it and it seemed a little bit more realistic, that hey, we can go at this team and we can put a fight all the way to the end, and that's what we did. Q. Emily, every time it seemed like you guys got back within range, they just didn't have a problem solving your pressure. Is that just the mark of a team that has a lot of veteran leadership, a lot of seniors, and it seemed every time you needed a stop they got it away at the other end? EMILY FOX: Yeah, we would make a big play and then their seniors would step up and make a big play right back in our face. I think their leadership really showed in that. But Breanna brought a lot of energy and just that tenacity. But they kept coming back. Q. Kelly, what's it like to play against a player who has the kind of physical presence like DeHaan has? KELLY ROYSLAND: It's very challenging. I mean, to have someone in the lane that's 6'9", always there to probably contest your shots. Even if you get around her, she's got an arm span that can reach four feet to get you from behind, too. That's just a great player for their team post presence, and she's only going to get better with time. Like I said, even though she might not block shots, she disturbs a lot of people's shots trying to get into the lane. You know, it wasn't easy for our post tonight, either, to have to go up against that all night. It's definitely a challenge, but I give our posts credit. They've come a long way this year, Zoe and Ashley, for first year playing in the Big Ten and all that. But DeHaan is a great player and she just creates a good presence all around, and when she's got it going, I think their team is quite unstoppable. Q. For Emily, what's the thought process for you just not knowing what's next? Obviously with one win and then a game against a tough team, your play down the stretch, what does that do for your confidence the rest of the way? EMILY FOX: I think we're just going to stay positive. We've had so much time together we don't want to stop. We're just going to go into it with positive mindset, practice hard, and just know that we're not done yet. THE MODERATOR: Now we'll continue with Coach Borton. Q. In the first game it seemed like Allyssa didn't have as much an impact, and some of the student athletes are talking about how you continued to go after them inside and really had an advantage there. Do you think the fact that you didn't have an advantage inside to start off kind of hurt the team? COACH PAM BORTON: I think it did, and I thought we wanted to really try to establish a post presence inside. I thought that's one thing that we did extremely well when we were at Michigan State a week ago is we took it right at them. I think Allyssa picked up two quick fouls in the first half, and our post players stood back down, and we wanted to try to do that but instead we missed some layups and we turned the ball over, and I think that really set the tone from the beginning of the game. Q. After the game did you talk at all about what's next for this team and whether it might have to be kind of going into a little uncertainty at this point? COACH PAM BORTON: We didn't talk about where our minds are, but we still feel like we have more basketball in us and that we still have a shot to potentially get in the NCAA tournament, and if not, the NIT. I think the best thing for this team to do is to continue playing and get some more experience and more games under our belt. I think this team is very young and very, very talented, and I'm very excited to look at the future of this team, and the more games we can play the more experience, the better it is for us. Q. Do you think you have any NCAA chances, or are you looking probably at WNIT and getting a couple more games of experience for this team? COACH PAM BORTON: I'm hoping we can still get in the NCAA tournament, with 17 wins, with South Dakota counting as a win, 17-14, there's teams a couple years ago that got in at 17 -14 and they did not win their conference. It depends what everybody else in the country is doing. There's a lot of teams on the bubble, and to our advantage those teams get knocked off early in their tournaments, and we'll just hope for the best right now. It's not in our control, and worst-case scenario we can get ourselves in the NIT. Q. How much did it help just to have Kelly kind of get out of her funk, and not only to make this a game but for your chances of possibly making a run, whatever tournament that you play in? COACH PAM BORTON: I thought it was very important. She had all of her 18 points in the second half, and I think for her to be a senior and to really kind of help lead this team, she's been leading this team all year, for her to lead the run back in the second half, I think she really ended the game like she wanted to be -- she ended the game like a champion. That's the best way I can say it. I think everybody fed off of that. Some younger kids I think will look up to -- I think some of the younger kids really fed off of that. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach. End of FastScripts |
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