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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 10, 2009

Amaka Uzomah

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

Colorado State Â– 64
Wyoming - 56

THE MODERATOR: Colorado State players Amaka Uzomah and Zoi Simmons. Coach Kristen Holt. We'll start out with general comments by Coach Holt, then get to questions by the student-athletes.
COACH HOLT: I'm extremely proud of my team. Going into this game, we talked a lot about kind of dictating the tempo. I felt like the first two times we played Wyoming, they dictated the tempo of the game. Our tempo is to try to pick it up and run as much as we can. We pressed a little bit obviously today.
So that's what we wanted to do. We felt that that would play to our advantage. I think it did.
So I really liked the start that we had. My team was as focused as they've been in any game this year. It's a good time to be focused. We had good practices leading up to today's game. These two here to the left did a superb job of just bringing a lot of energy. Zoi took care of the ball very well. Thought she did a great job in the press. Amaka was huge on the boards and made some shots that sometimes I don't let her shoot (smiling).
But, no, I thought we were making a lot of shots in the first half, shots that we don't normally hit, shots that we don't normally take. I thought at times in the second half, we were trying to take those same shots and weren't hitting them. Those were not good shots for us, which I think led to Wyoming being able to come back in the game. That was part of it. Again, when we came out in the second half, we were short on everything. A lot of that had to do with all the energy we had in the first half.
THE MODERATOR: At this time we'll take questions for the student-athletes.

Q. What is it about tournament time? Do you think maybe you should just forget about the regular season and come straight here to Vegas and start knocking people off?
AMAKA UZOMAH: To tell you the truth, I don't know what it is about tournament time. All I know is we come into this 0-0 any conference. You just got to fight for it all. It's a new start. Yeah, we might have started off rough in the season, but we put that behind us, come in, say it's a new season, a new team.

Q. Was it a little bit tough to be playing -- you aren't used to playing with that kind of lead and trying to protect it. Was it a little strange in the second half?
ZOI SIMMONS: Not really. We just had to, you know, keep focused. Because during the second, you know, half, we were always, you know, going down, like, by 5 or 10. We always lose it. We had to just, you know, keep focusing and play hard.

Q. You were making a lot of shots in the first half. Wyoming wasn't. What were you doing defensively to really shut them down in the first half?
AMAKA UZOMAH: In the first half, we had to play them straight up. It was every man for themselves to play them straight up and not to sag off of them, because they all can shoot. Wyoming is a great offensive team. They can play ball. We also had to cut off baseline and help each other out as teammates. At the same time we play them straight up, you've got to be there and help. That was our game plan.
ZOI SIMMONS: Our main focus was on defense and just, you know, run on them, mainly just transition.

Q. Amaka, Kristen said some of those shots going down for you in the first half are ones she normally doesn't let you take. What gave you the confidence to take them and then make them?
AMAKA UZOMAH: I really don't know. Like, I guess, after the first two, because the first two were post shots, my third one, when I made that turnaround jumper, I just told myself, if I'm going to shoot, if I'm going to come out and stay focused, I've got to come out with confidence and show my teammates I'm there for them. If I have to make a jumper, I got to make sure I stay there, which I did. I usually fade away and stay back on defense. I stayed, held my follow through. When I made it, I looked at her, It went in. Then went back on defense (laughter).
I had confidence in that shot, though.
THE MODERATOR: At this time we'll dismiss the student-athletes. We'll open it up for questions for Coach Holt. Thank you, ladies.

Q. Kristen, what happened to Britney and will she be able to play tomorrow?
COACH HOLT: I just visited her in the training room. She's going to have to have a couple stitches. But other than that, I'm not sure. I know she ran into one of our players. I think she ran into Kim, because Kim had a cut on her elbow.
I think she says she's going to be okay.

Q. We thought she broke her nose. What did she do?
COACH HOLT: She could have. They're going to take her and check it out and see if indeed she did. She had a pretty good cut on her nose.

Q. A cut?
COACH HOLT: Right here, across her nose.

Q. On the bridge?
COACH HOLT: I think so. I didn't get a good look at her because they had her all bandaged up.

Q. Did you get the feeling this was like last year all over again when this got going, the environment, the atmosphere? I know you're the head coach and not the assistant. Did you feel some of that same energy as things got going in the first half?
COACH HOLT: Well, you know, I don't think about last year too much. I was just really pretty happy with the way we started the game and how we came out so quick. There's been a lot of games this year where we haven't been able to do that.
Then to be able to kind of hang on to it, because, again, I thought in the second half they made some adjustments. We came out a little flat, were missing short. I was concerned that when we started missing shots, that maybe our confidence would let down and maybe we'd give up. I took a timeout to try to get them focused.
My team's a lot about keeping 'em focused and keeping 'em working hard and if we can do that, not that every team doesn't try to do that, but if we can do that, we can be in a ballgame. That was kind of the whole purpose of today, is we just really knew we had to come out with great energy and focus, because Wyoming is a very good team. They've handled us both times that we played them this year.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach.
COACH HOLT: You're welcome.

End of FastScripts

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