	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 11, 2009

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by UNLV student-athletes Shamela Hampton, Allison Holiday and Jamie Smith, as well as coach Kathy Olivier. We could get started with some general comments from you, coach.
COACH OLIVIER: All right. I'm just really, really proud of our basketball team right now. They're just playing with an I don't want to go home attitude. They're extremely focused, very coachable. Right now that intensity needs to stay for a couple more games.
We took care of the ball. We asked them to take care of the ball. They did that. We only had 10 turnovers tonight. We started the game with so much just drive. It was a good night to be a Rebel, that's for sure.
And the clock could not go fast enough, by the way (smiling).
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Are you guys, especially after last night, is the confidence level sky high right now?
SHAMELA HAMPTON: I can speak on that.
I'd say our confidence level has went up. Coach has helped us with that. She said we could do this. In the locker room, she kind of, you know, hyped us up a little bit to make sure that we have the confidence to go on the court.
As a leader on this team, I have helped with that, to have confidence, tell everybody we could do this, make them believe. I think that's what we did today.

Q. When did you turn into John Stockton at the line?
SHAMELA HAMPTON: Actually, I'd say coach helped me with that. She gave me confidence. She said I could do that. She's like, I love your stroke, keep it up. I thank coach for that. She has helped me.
COACH OLIVIER: I think Shamela wants a job after her senior year.

Q. Allison, you played during a critical stretch of point guard. You had eight assists for the game. Talk about coming in for Erica, what that meant for the team.
ALLISON HOLIDAY: I just tried to go hard every chance I got. When I have that chance, I'm going to go and prove to Coach KO that I really want to be out there. I took advantage this game. And it felt good.

Q. Jamie, second double-double in a row. You shot over 51% as a team. What was happening tonight with the shooting?
JAMIE SMITH: I think that we just had a lot of confidence coming into this game. It was really a team effort. It wasn't just one person hitting outside. I mean, everybody was hitting outside. Everybody was grabbing rebounds. Me and Shamela worked really well inside together I think tonight.
It was just an overall team effort that really got our confidence going. After that we just kind of did it.
THE MODERATOR: We'll let the student-athletes go at this time. Thank you, ladies. Questions for Coach Olivier.

Q. The key was hitting over the zone. Was it as simple as that: just making shots?
COACH OLIVIER: The first time we played them at home we thought that we played them fairly well. They came out with the W, but we played them tough. Our defense had a lot to do with that.
The second time we played them, we didn't feel like we played well at all. TCU is a very, very good basketball team. They should be in the NCAA tournament in my mind with no doubt. They beat Cal. They beat Maryland. I mean, I believe they have 20 wins, 19 or 20 wins, very well-coached. We knew we were going to get zone. We talked about it as a staff. We made some adjustments in our zone offense. The players really listened up, came in hit some big shots, which opened it up for the inside game. Jamie and Shamela took advantage of that. Allison got the ball to the right people. That's all she wrote.

Q. With the new format in the tournament, you have to win four games in five days as opposed to three in three days. There's some people who like the day off, some people who don't. What are your thoughts on the day off in the middle?
COACH OLIVIER: Well, I mean, I'm just glad we're at that situation where we have to think about that. To be honest, I think our team's gonna be fine. We're taking the day off. We're gonna do a talk-through instead of a walk-through. We have a few people playing a lot of minutes. But their adrenaline's flowing right now. So as much as a day off, I hear what you're saying, it scares me a little. I just think this team, you know, we lost to BYU twice, then we beat them last night. We lost to TCU twice, then we beat them.
There's one other team that we lost to twice in this conference, and we get to play them on Friday. San Diego State is a very, very good team. They have a great inside game. They have great perimeter players. I think it's going to be a great matchup. It's gonna probably be a track meet, so I think we can use that day off and hopefully it will help us.

Q. Did you stick with Allison during that long stretch because she was playing so well at that point?
COACH OLIVIER: Allison, you know, I know she hasn't played a lot of minutes this year, but we have a lot of confidence in her. She does a really good job against the zone 'cause she's a great passer and she sees the floor.
Erica does a great job with the tempo. It just so happened that Erica got in foul trouble. Like Allison said, you know, she took advantage of her opportunity.
I love that she did well. I thought it was great. I thought it hyped up the team, got the crowd going. She hit a couple threes, if I'm not mistaken. Three for five. She hit three threes. Allison, she's an upperclassman, she knows what she's doing. She has a lot of confidence. Against certain teams, she's a big asset for us. Tonight was one of those games.

Q. Defensively in the first half when you got the big lead, you seemed really frustrated. Seemed you were mixing up defenses.
COACH OLIVIER: Yes, we were mixing it up a little and try to keep them off-balance. They're a great basketball team, No. 4 is one of the best players in the conference. She gets comfortable. Their team gets comfortable. So we were trying to just make her work a little more by reading the defenses. I mean, you're only going to be able to contain her so much.
You know, we have to get better. It's very obvious. I know everyone in this room knows this. But we have to get better at the end of the game, be able to hold leads a little more than we have, take care of the ball, not get so flustered, like be in that situation and expect to be in that situation and handle that situation.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297