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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 14, 2008Sara HunterAmaka UzomahJen WardenLAS VEGAS, NEVADA THE MODERATOR: Coach, if you want to take a minute or two and give us your thoughts on the game. COACH WARDEN: Well, you know, I think I was real pleased with the way the game started. Defensively we came out, probably gave them something they hadn't seen before. They missed their first six shots and we had six turnovers ensuing in those first five minutes, including the media timeout. Although we were pleased that it was a two-point game, I think at that point is when you have to take advantage and make sure that it's 10 to 2, make sure you take advantage of your offensive positions while you're making those defensive stops to open the game. After they missed their first six shots, they went on a string late in the first half. They went five for six from the three. The rest of the game they were four for 18 from the three. I think that concentrated onslaught of threes kind of shocked us a bit and made us do some different things defensively. But in the second half, I was probably the most pleased with our mentality offensively and the way we got on the attack and played a little more hard-nosed and gambled a little bit more. I think if I were to play this game over again, I might do a better job of setting the tone for that early. There's two reasons you make turnovers: because you're too conservative or too risky. I think we made conservative turnovers in the first half. I think I would have coached us to be a little bit more aggressive and carefree with the ball, even though we didn't want to get into a running game with New Mexico. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. Questions directed to the student-athletes. Q. Sara, what were your thoughts when this finally came to an end after what you have done here? SARA HUNTER: I don't know. I mean, we couldn't have fought harder. Obviously we'd all want to take the first half back. I'm just proud of our team really. I'm glad we did what we did here. Had fun. Wish it could have ended differently. But we fought hard. Q. Amaka, in the first few minutes of the game you were able to really attack inside. You got the two layups right off the bat. Did they change anything they were doing defensively after those first four baskets or was it other things that stopped working? AMAKA UZOMAH: I don't think they changed anything defensively. I mean, they played me the same. We had to change the way we were playing our offense because of the way they were playing me. But, you know, I don't think they did anything differently. The only thing that I can think of is Kimble coming over and sort of looked like she's helping, which made me second-guess should I keep going or should I kick out, so... Q. Of UNLV, Utah and now New Mexico, was this the toughest game you feel you played this week or do you think the three games in three days has finally caught up? AMAKA UZOMAH: I don't think this was the toughest game we played. The toughest game we played was yesterday and Monday -- the day before yesterday and Monday. I mean, I don't know. SARA HUNTER: I don't know. Every game is tough. AMAKA UZOMAH: Yeah. SARA HUNTER: The first half killed us, so... Obviously, New Mexico is a great team. They're going to do well. I think they're gonna -- you know, it's going to be a great game tomorrow whoever they match up with. Every game we play is tough, obviously (laughter). Q. Sara, when you look back on this experience, what did this week mean to you to finish your career on such a high note, at least coming into this game? SARA HUNTER: Yeah, I don't know. My career's been anything and everything that I would have wanted it to be. You know, like I said yesterday, I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to finish with. Glad we got a couple wins (tearing up). Q. What were you guys saying at halftime? You're down by 21, looks like everything is going south, yet you were able to come back in the second half. What motivated you and had you fired up? AMAKA UZOMAH: Well, we had to pick ourselves up and we had to tell each other, We have nothing to lose. We just got to come out fighting like we did the first two games, to get on defense. If we shut down one person, you got to be out there on the wings to cover the three-point shooters. As we noticed in the first half, every player shot a three and made it. We were telling ourselves, If one of them's being shut down down low, we got to make sure we get out on the wings, make sure we pick up our defense, not to give up, just to fight, have fun, go out there and play. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, guys. Questions for Coach Warden. Q. What does this do for you going into the off-season? One gal you signed last fall, she's in the Colorado Final Four. I don't know if you've been able to talk to her. Can you address going into the off-season coming off a high and what she'll do for the team next year? COACH WARDEN: I think any program in any situation wants to finish playing its best basketball so you can point towards the future and see some leaps from the underclassmen as they establish their games in the off-season and you establish the nucleus of the team to return. I think we definitely, when you look out on the floor, you know, we have Dionne Marsh and Brandi Kimble who had 19 and 13 respectively, and obviously Sara Hunter has done a tremendous job leading us. But for the most part I've got a junior, two freshmen and a sophomore or a junior, two sophomores and a freshman on the floor. I think this is a young, talented program that's kind of playing beyond their years right now, not 'cause they want to, but 'cause they have to. Those are the types of experiences that you build on. I think, you know, one thing that you tell your players, you know, in little conversations in the hallway is, The freshmen are going to be the ones now to tell the story about how this team did this, what it was like, what it took to do it. They've been listening for a year and now it's time for them to start speaking. Q. What did you tell your team at halftime after that first half? COACH WARDEN: I told my staff before I went into the team that I think -- it's such a fun dynamic and a challenging dynamic because I expected us to have so much kind of energy and anticipation, that I didn't kind of want to send them to the moon emotionally with a tremendous pep talk. But I felt at halftime that I maybe underestimated that they needed emotion and motivation more than I had given them. I think, first of all, we just had to resist the temptation to have egos to not believe what was happening. You know, we've got to play without egos. You got to admit there's nothing to lose before you can play for something to win. To be honest, I think nothing I said at halftime was as important as Sara's layup. When she got the first offensive possession and our smallest player came in there and got in the paint and finished the layup with no assists, no second pass, just said, This is the way it's got to be done, I think that set the tone for the next five or six possessions where everybody kind of stood up and took notice and said, We're going to have 20 more minutes of basketball in this arena. Q. New Mexico seems almost always to be able to peak in the conference tournament. What do you see in their program that might explain that? COACH WARDEN: I don't think I understand your question. Q. New Mexico almost always seems to peak here in the conference tournament. What do you see in their program that might explain that a little bit? COACH WARDEN: What do I see in my program? THE MODERATOR: In New Mexico's program that explains why they always seem to peak during the conference tournament. COACH WARDEN: You got to look at the leadership. That guy is phenomenal. Don Flanagan is a phenomenal coach. Phenomenal coach at every level. I think if you look at their last six games, with the exception -- probably TCU was a tremendous experience for them, although they might not have enjoyed the overtime loss. You look at what they've done since they lost against TCU in overtime, and that team found a sense of itself. I don't think it's looked back. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Jen. COACH WARDEN: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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