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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 7, 2007

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by San Diego State University head coach Beth Burns, student-athletes Quenese Davis and Shanna Demus. Coach, if you want to begin with some opening comments.
COACH BURNS: Certainly. I think that what sometimes gets lost in Wyoming's team when you talk about what makes Wyoming work, they're such a fantastic shooting team. They run such great rhythm offense. I think what some people don't realize is that they also give up the least amount of points in the league. They're the No. 1 team in our league in terms of points.
I think, you know, at halftime, my assistant coach leaned over and said, I think the winner of this game is going to a Bowl game because I believe it was 17-14. But what they did that was most critical and most challenging to us was they eliminated any easy points.
We got nothing in transition. We have to get that in order to be able to score. They put a lot of pressure on our halfcourt offense. We had to work really, really hard for our points. I think as the game wore on, that was the difference in the game.
With that said, I could not be prouder of our effort. We gave them everything we had and then some. I think that's a difficult offense to guard. I thought that we did just as good a job as we could. Tip your cap to them for really that run that got us on our heels. We stepped it a little bit, but we just really couldn't score enough points to put us in a position to be successful.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Either player, what did you do well defensively against Wyoming today? 16% in the first half is what they shot. What specifically did you do well defensively against them?
QUENESE DAVIS: I say we limited their outside shooting. They were, what, 0-5 for threes? Probably take away more shots than that. They average more shots than that making. That's what we took away from them.

Q. If you had known you were going to hold them without a three-pointer in this game, would you have believed that you would have lost this game?
QUENESE DAVIS: I think it would take more than just us limiting them in threes. We stopped their inside game, too.
SHANNA DEMUS: I guess from the beginning, probably, because they're a great shooting three-point team. I think they're leading the conference in three-pointers. I think they're like 22nd in the nation.
Of course, it's in the back of our head. Going into the game we were prepared and we were ready. But, hey, what can I say?

Q. How frustrated did they have you offensively just with the defense they played in this game?
SHANNA DEMUS: I don't think they had us frustrated more than just ourselves, the ability. I had open shots. Just the inability to knock them down or to make the open layups we did have. Not them more than ourselves.
THE MODERATOR: We'll let you two ladies go. Thank you.
COACH BURNS: Good job, ladies.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Burns.

Q. Beth, can you talk about the first seven or eight minutes of the second half. Obviously you couldn't do anything in transition. They kind of buckled you down a little bit. Can you talk about that stretch.
COACH BURNS: I think beginning, middle and end, we just didn't, couldn't, wouldn't rebound. You know, we are a team that works really, really hard to get in the high 50s. I mean, that's against anybody that we play. So that's a common theme.
Our challenge is - and has been - our energy level has to be so high to be -- we got people guarding people that are six and seven inches bigger than they are, so our energy level has to be so high to prevent them from doing what they're doing.
It does get a little frustrating, even though I guess these two weren't frustrated. I'll be honest and say I was a little frustrated. It gets hard to keep working that hard and coming up empty.
I think it puts so much pressure on your offense that when, you know, who doesn't miss a layup? Layups get missed. For us, it's like Oh, my goodness. It puts so much more pressure on our offense because it was our first easy shot we had.
That's credit to them. They're a team that has an opportunity to not only get into the tournament but to win in the tournament. I think they're older and they looked it. They're experienced and they looked it. They made a run and they never -- you know, I think we guarded them a little bit in the first half. I don't think they just didn't shoot well.
Great ones never let you see them sweat. They never changed their composure, never came out of their stuff. That's a credit to Joe and to his team.
It's tough for us to score.

Q. What was the feeling at halftime when you're up three, but at the same time they're only shooting 16%?
COACH BURNS: We did about everything we can do well. I will agree with Shanna that I thought we did get some nice looks, but they didn't drop. All we could do was to encourage them to keep taking those same shots to try to help us help each other getting on the offensive boards. But, of course, expect that we have to have the same kind of focus and intensity.
Really I think in the second half it was they shot a lot of free-throws. It was a great crew. But that was the difference, too. As you got a little bit more fatigued, a great shooting team is usually great from the stripe, as well, and they are. That was just too much for us.
But we felt good. I mean, I had told the team yesterday that, you know, If we win 2-1 we still win. We still get to play on Friday. That's the way we think we have to play with our team this year.

Q. Can you recap this season in a nutshell, if you can, and what's down the road.
COACH BURNS: It went fast. Last year did not go fast. Last year went really long (smiling).
It went fast. I think we improved tremendously. I think the opportunity for Quenese -- Quenese Davis has had a fantastic freshman year. We really didn't have a sub for her. She is 125 pounds with rocks in her pockets and we never took her out. I think we'll be the benefactor of that next year.
She's seen it all, played against the great teams in this league. I think we lose two seniors. We have four redshirts that have been practicing with us in the gym. We had a recruiting class that we're proud of.
I think right now, you know, I said to one of my coaches last week in practice, If you didn't know any better you'd think we were the No. 1 seed. And that's why the year went fast. Everybody likes and respects one another. We work hard in practice every day.
I think you feel bad today, but when you look back over your shoulder, we've made great strides. We've won 12 games from three games. Now, knock on wood, injuries and things, we feel like we're ready. We haven't pulled our weight in the Mountain West Conference. We feel that we're ready to do that.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks very much.
COACH BURNS: Thank you, everyone.

End of FastScripts

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