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BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 6, 2011

Jeff Walz

HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT

Notre Dame: 63
Louisville: 53

THE MODERATOR: Joining us is Coach Jeff Walz and Shoni Schimmel, Coach?
JEFF WALZ: Hats off to Notre Dame and their entire team, I thought they played extremely well. They did a great job of finding a way to get to the free-throw line and unfortunately we could not. You know, they shot a very impressive 20 of 25 from the line and unfortunately we go 3 for 7, so that's a discrepancy in the game when you're trying to compete with a team as good as them.
You've got to find a way to get to the free-throw line and unfortunately we could not. I thought they played extremely hard. They played well, Devereaux played an outstanding game, did a nice job of finishing around the paint and Skylar came on and had a great second half for 'em.
THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. Skylar stole the ball in the half-court and got the layup in the second half, what was going through your mind? How did that feel?
SHONI SCHIMMEL: It wasn't a good feeling but to get back and get the offense going was just the plan. I mean, it's not always a good feeling when you get your pocket picked so just try and get out there and run the offense and get a shot up.

Q. Shoni you guys didn't quit and cut it to 6 at one point, can you talk about the fight when you're down 19 and battling back and making a game out of it?
SHONI SCHIMMEL: I mean, just with the support that like the coaches and everything and the team backing it up. Charmaine Tay came out and played her heart out. For her to do that, it got everyone else going. We just went out there and tried to keep going as a team and that's what we did.

Q. In that stretch there was a stretch of about 10 possessions, you force seven Notre Dame turnovers, can you talk about what you guys did defensively?
SHONI SCHIMMEL: We got our hands up in the passing lanes and that's exactly what we did and we got big stops there for that seven-turnover possession and we pushed it back at 'em and went at 'em.

Q. Shoni, I haven't seen a lot of your games but moving and opportunities off the ball tonight how did that give you guys different looks and how did that adjust to what you guys planned to do and how Notre Dame responded?
SHONI SCHIMMEL: Getting off the ball is a different look, and you've got Charmaine Tay at the point position, she'll drive it, pass it she's working on her jump shot but I mean she hit some tonight so it's pretty good for her, so...
THE MODERATOR: Any questions for Coach?

Q. Jeff, looking at the second half you guys put a big emphasis on rebounding, Notre Dame did and you guys came out strong and were attacking the boards, was that a point of emphasis for you guys, something you wanted to work on the second half?
JEFF WALZ: Yeah, they did a great job at their place the first time we played 'em, they outrebounded us in the offensive end, our goal was to try and make sure we made a presence of trying to go to the offensive glass, we came up with 18 offensive boards but we only get 13 second-chance points and we held them to 8 offensive boards but they come up with 11 second-chance points.
So even though there is a discrepancy in the number of offensive boards we got from them, the number of points we actually converted off of, were not that big.

Q. Jeff, when you guys played at their place you got down the end of the first half and didn't battle back in the second half but tonight you guys fought back and had a chance to cut the game to one possession in the last few minutes, what does that say about your young team?
JEFF WALZ: I was pleased with the heart that our kids played with, we had some lineups on the floor that we normally don't play, especially with the first half with the foul trouble that we had.
I thought we just continued to fight, continued to play hard. You know, it's something where we will break this film down and show 'em the things we did well.
Defensively I thought we played well, got our hands on some passes and if you take away the steals at half-court, take away the unforced turnovers that lead to easy baskets for them, they're scoring 55, 56 points and that's a very good basketball team and that's really what we've been trying to emphasize this entire season.

Q. Can you elaborate on Devereaux Peters' impact, not just offensively but defensively?
JEFF WALZ: She played fantastic. I'm friends with her and her entire staff, and when Devereaux comes to play they're as good as a team as there is and when she doesn't they're average. Because she is such an impact player, and for our league I hope she continues to come and play every night because they can make a deep run just not in our tournament but in the NCAA Tournament. She moves well, can score around the basket, can defend a guard. I've always been really impressed with her and excited to see her playing as well as she is but unfortunately she could have played bad tonight if she wanted.

Q. Jeff, you wanted to remind them that as long as you went at runs you could be okay and I think you guys did that fairly well, they had a 16-5 run and you guys had a 16-4 run, what does that say about their poise?
JEFF WALZ: The problem tonight was the run that we gave at the end of the first half. We had a 24-21, going to the free-throw line to shoot two and missed both of 'em and you just can't do that. Not against a team as good as they are. Then we come down and get a great shot with about 40 seconds on the game clock and miss it and then we get a defense set-up, they call a time-out, force 'em into a shot they miss, they miss a second shot and unfortunately we give them a third one for a stick-back and instead of going into half down six we're down eight and they've got the momentum on their side.
I told our players I was proud of how hard they played, really proud of, you know, the fight they showed. We didn't quit. Now we've got to get back at it and get prepared for, you know, what we hope will be an NCAA Tournament bid and try and see if we can't win a few games in that.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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