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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2007Sherri CoaleCourtney ParisAshley ParisJenna PlumleyOKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA MODERATOR: Give us a quick assessment of tonight's game and upcoming opponent on Saturday. COACH SHERRI COALE: I'm proud of our kids, the way we battled. Give Baylor credit. Played extremely well, shot the ball extremely well from the three-point line and we were able to stave that off and make the plays down the stretch, get the rebounds and stops and showed a lot of character. Shot out to Kendra Moore, found her minutes in the first half were absolutely huge for us. I know she's not here with us, but her minutes were absolutely huge. And just really proud of our kids. Proud of the effort. Gritty game, and we did what we had to do down the stretch. Q. Sherry, every game obviously gets bigger for your freshman point guard. Talk about how she performed on this stage. COACH SHERRI COALE: Good and bad. She had obviously some huge 3s, huge 3s in transition, just completely changes the complexion of transition defense for our opponents. Some forces. Tried to hit some home runs, feeding the post a little too early. A little bit antsy but played her way through it. Came back and made big plays and did what we needed her to do in the second half, and her performance in the second half was just huge. Q. Sherry, this was like a heavy weight fight in some ways, especially in the second half when they made their run and yet they only got one small lead and the rest of the time you countered every time. You've got to like how your team just wouldn't give in and wouldn't let them build any kind of lead at all. COACH SHERRI COALE: I think that's a little bit of a reflection of hunger that's borne of going through post-season last year and things not finishing up the way we wanted them to finish up. There's just a toughness that you develop that is borne from going through those situations, and I was proud of that. We did some silly things to let them get back into the game and give them credit they made shots. They made plays but, boy, we just handed them the basketball a few times. And you can't do that against quality teams. We were able to stave it off and do good things down the stretch. But shouldn't have ever been in that situation. Q. This is for Courtney and for Jenna. Can you talk about -- Jenna, can you talk about what you saw on the little skip path that you threw from the top down? You know the play I'm talking about? About four minutes left, that got to Courtney, ended up being a pretty big basket. Can you talk about what you saw there and then kind of a tough pass to corral. I wondered what you saw, Courtney, as well, too? JENNA PLUMLEY: First thing, Coach said this is a big play for us to come in and execute, nothing that I had to force, but I felt like I knew Courtney was going to get her numbers to the basketball. Every time I see Courtney, no matter where I throw it, she's going to get it. And I seen her there and it was one of those passes you see and you hope it gets there. But that was a big play that she came up with, that she -- she has such great hands and she was able to handle the ball and get an easy layup. COURTNEY PARIS: I thought what I saw was an opportunity to make a big play and kind of give us momentum going in the last few minutes. And Jenna Plumley is a great passer. Complete front line. I've never seen anyone play like that before. But the backside was open and Jenna was able to get the ball there. Q. My question is for Coach and for Courtney. Coach mentioned about Kendra and then you got Miss Plumley there as the guard getting the ball to you. How important is it that you're a balanced team? And also, Coach, about the competition of the Big 12 with these games we've seen on this week? COACH SHERRI COALE: I think point guard play is essential down the stretch. You gotta be able to handle the basketball, make plays and I should probably receive most of the credit for some of the turnovers in the second half. I think I tried to organize too much. I should have let them go a little bit more. We were trying to get some isolations and we were trying to exploit the way they were guarding Courtney. I probably put them in too many structured situations. They're smart and know how to play basketball. I leaned over to Chelsi at one point second half and I said I need to let you guys alone, play for a little bit. You know what to do. That's why we practice. I take a few of those, I think Kendra and Jenna together handled it. It was not an easy job tonight. They put all kinds of pressure on the basketball all night long and never go away. So it's not an easy job regardless of who is up there running it. Second part of your question, Big 12 in general. Incredibly tough. We don't have a bottom half. Most leagues have a top and a chasm and a few teams at the bottom. We just don't. There's just great, great parity. It was revealed this week in the play. Iowa State is playing for a championship. They come in at what, five seed? I'm not sure. Is that right? Number five. So obviously a lot of parity up and down. Q. Sherri and also for some of the players, but you mentioned Kendra, but also on a night when Amanda and Leah and Erin did not shoot it well, you still showed a lot of depth. Ashley had a great game. So talk about that, the depth and also Jenna and her first Big 12 tournament. And I would like you to respond. Apparently this doesn't bother you, this stage, Big 12 tournament. COACH SHERRI COALE: I think depth is critical. We've known all year long going into the season, something we talked about a lot that would really pay off down the stretch. And the way the season has sort of wound down, it's given us an opportunity to develop that depth and it's depth that has some experience. Jenna has played under a lot of pressure these last few games in the month of February as we were trying to share a piece of that conference championship, and that puts her in a position to be able to excel on a stage such as this. JENNA PLUMLEY: It's been really exciting. Everything that's came to me, it's been a great opportunity to come out and I feel like the players that surround me are just great players and I feel like any given night anybody can be hot with Courtney on my team, all the shooters, with Chelsi and Leah, anybody can get a 3. It's so much fun playing together and beating Oklahoma. Q. This is for the players. I know you played loose and that would probably be your answer. But I'm curious about the pressure. Earlier in the day, A&M loses, and most people think it's going to be a cakewalk for you to go on. Second half you had a chance for it to be a bigger lead at half time, and all of a sudden they turned around and had the momentum and took the lead. Did you sense at any time any -- being tight? COURTNEY PARIS: I don't think anyone thinks the Big 12 is a cakewalk, and Iowa State showed that today. The league is getting so much better and it's really good. Never know what's going to happen. Gotta show up to play. Baylor was tough and they made a good come back, but we just stayed poised and stuck with it and got the lead back. Q. Ashley, you've had back-to-back really solid games yesterday and today, the last two days. I mean, sometimes post-season brings out the best in players. Do you feel your game going to a whole other level just because you know it's post-season and you know what's in front of you from here on out? ASHLEY PARIS: Yeah. I think it's crunch time now. Every game is pretty much for the next. I feel if I'm consistent and make sure I get eight or nine rebounds a game and try to score double figures and just be a threat out there that it will help our team be able to be successful. Q. Coach, talk a little bit about the, I guess hometown feel you had here. Great crowd support for you guys tonight. COACH SHERRI COALE: Absolutely. We needed it in the second half. Our fans were so terrific. They so respond to our players at one point Leah Rush just raised one hand and everybody went crazy. It's a huge advantage obviously. Our fans have been fantastic. I love the fact that it's convenient and 're but I think they would have followed us just about anywhere. Q. Coach, in the second half, we forgot to mention about Welch, how well she did a great job of coming in here hitting those shots. It was a key run when they made the 10 for 2 run. COACH SHERRI COALE: Absolutely. Chelsi was terrific and even the plays she didn't score on were things that really affected their defense. She had a cut missed a layup. Had another great cut, didn't finish, kicked it back out. But those were things that we needed to do to attack them. It changed the rhythm and cadence and gave us a little bit of momentum offensively. Q. Courtney, you said their defense. Did you mean because of the way like Rachel and Danielle were almost laying on you? COURTNEY PARIS: Yes. I mean that's -- I don't know. That was definitely something I had to adjust to at the very beginning of the game. I've never seen anyone just turn and keep their hands up and breathe in your face. I don't know. I thought it was kind of interesting. I don't know. I've never seen that before. I told Rachel, this is strange defense. I don't know. It was different. Just had to adjust to it a little bit. I think Coach Coale did a good job helping me through that. Q. Talk about the Iowa State matchup, how unique, and also Coach Fennelly has been bragging about the hug. COACH SHERRI COALE: He waited around and gave me one, too. So turnabout is fair play. I'm happy for Bill. He's a dear friend and done a magnificent job with that team this year. They're spunky and don't go away and terrific shooters. And Lindsay Balweg is probably one of the most underrated guards in America. I know her well. We recruited her hard. So that relationship goes back a ways, and she's had a remarkable career at Iowa State. But it's been a long time since we played those guys. And so get the film back out and study a little bit and adjust to a completely different kind of game. They're so different than A&M and Baylor and Texas, which it feels like that's all we've played for the last three or four weeks. So it will be an adjustment. But we're looking forward to the opportunity and happy that we're playing. Q. Sherri, Courtney mentioned remaining poised after Baylor made their comeback but you guys had committed a number of turnovers in a row. Seemed like you had to more regain it. How were you able to do that and you sort of had to seemingly overcome yourselves. So what sort of happened the second half to get it back on track? COACH SHERRI COALE: Well, we've had magnificent practices. How many times have we shot ourselves in the foot and had to figure it out? A bunch. You watched all these games, Clay. So you know what? You learn from it and you figure it out, and they did. They didn't go crazy. We were shooting ourselves in the foot and instead of going crazy, they just decided, ah, let's stop that. Let's talk to each other and go score. And it works real well. Simple game. Q. Coach, can you talk a little bit about the defensive job that Leah and Ashley did on Mosby? COACH SHERRI COALE: Yes, with help from their friends. Early on particularly we did a great job of just sort of being around where she didn't have any room, anywhere to go. That's what we did for 40 minutes. And I don't know that we did that good of a job at it in the second half. We got so worried about Darrett and Morrow making 3s that we were a little hesitant to get in there and crowd it up, and it's when Bernice got loose for a few. But overall Leah Rush battled. Whoever she's guarding is going to have a hard time catching the basketball. She's going to make them work for every single catch they get and she's a tough match there for Bernice. Q. The championship, you're back in another title game. How does that feel, Courtney, Jenna? You've never experienced that. Ashley, you have. Just talk about Oklahoma basketball and being back in a title game where you seem to be landing in a familiar spot. JENNA PLUMLEY: I don't know. My year and a half year that's what we do. It's fun. And Coach talked about all the time you want to play well and get the seniors the championship game and that's what we were able to do tonight. ASHLEY PARIS: It's exciting. I think in the locker room they were talking about most of our seniors are -- we have a possibility of winning their third conference championship or tournament championship, and that's a huge deal. It's just exciting. You expect great things from this program and we have the high expectations and winning tournament and conference championships is one of them. End of FastScripts |
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