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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: WEST LAFAYETTEMarch 17, 2012KK HouserCourtney MosesSharon VersypWEST LAFAYETTE, INDIANA Purdue – 83 COACH VERSYP: Just knew it was going to be a very exciting match‑up. Not having played for two weeks, it was difficult for us to really contain some energy early. But I really feel that we had a very good game plan. South Dakota State did a great job of knocking down shots and making us pay if we obviously made a mistake. But I thought our defense and KK really set the tone defensively and with her steals, and then obviously I thought we moved the ball around and did some good things inside and outside. Q. Were you trying to one‑up Brittany at some point tonight? Joking aside, just your game and the shot. Did everything just come in rhythm for you today? COURTNEY MOSES: Yeah, definitely. My teammates just were setting great screens. Our team had so many assists today. We were just talking about it, and it all just comes from your teammates, and you just have to knock down the shot. Q. Courtney, at times this has been a frustrating year from a shooting perspective for you. Was this a nice way to sort of remedy some of those struggles throughout the year? COURTNEY MOSES: My team has always had confidence in me, I've always had confidence in myself, so to go out and continue and be confident is definitely a good feeling. Q. KK, to be able to get the ball as quickly as you did, once you hit one and two, was it just a matter of finding her on the wing? KK HOUSER: Yeah, I knew Courtney was going to come in and have a good shooting game today. She shot great all week long in practice, so getting her open and just little things, and Courtney has a quick release, so she doesn't need much time to get it down. Q. What do y'all know about South Carolina? KK HOUSER: Just from watching a little bit of their game, quick, defensive guards, pressure to the perimeter, small. COURTNEY MOSES: They get after it, very high energy, very well‑coached team, and they're definitely‑‑ it's tournament time, so they're getting after it. Q. Courtney, it looked like you guys were trying to go inside early and you had some success there. Do you feel like that helped open things up for you a little bit later because they had to pay so much attention to your interior players? COURTNEY MOSES: Definitely. We were just running plays, going high‑low. I remember Chelsea was‑‑ they kind of stopped Chelsea there at the beginning of the game, and definitely scoring down low, they're going to start collapsing in and it's going to get the perimeter open. Q. KK, the first four minutes of the game, how much did those steals get you into the rhythm of the game, and then for this being your first NCAA Tournament game, did that maybe settle you down a little bit? KK HOUSER: Yeah, I think it might have got me going a little more. My defense is what gets me going and I just get confidence off my defense, so getting steals early in the game was huge for me. Q. KK, did you feel like you couldn't quite put them away there until I think early in the second half or whenever it was you had a little bit of a run, including Courtney's two three‑pointers there back to back? Was that a pretty critical stretch in giving you guys some push? KK HOUSER: Yeah, they're a great team, and they just kept fighting. It was hard, we'd go on runs and then they'd cut the lead. I was pretty confident the whole way. Q. Courtney, just your thoughts on having the tournament record and hitting those nine three‑pointers? COURTNEY MOSES: I would sum it up in two ways: I would say that with Purdue all things are possible and with God all things are possible. Q. Is there any team that you played this year that is similar to South Carolina? KK HOUSER: Texas A&M. Q. Sharon, just that stretch there in the second half, they got within two and then Courtney scored eight there in those back‑to‑back threes. Was that kind of the cushion you needed to maybe take control of the game a little bit? COACH VERSYP: Definitely. They did a nice job coming back. We needed to settle down, make a couple shots, try to attack the basket and try to set Courtney up because she was knocking down shots. But again, I just think, just like when Brittany knocked down those 12 threes, just the team really realized what was happening, and we needed to make sure we did some key things, especially when they came back. Q. It did look like you were trying to go inside early. How much do you think that sort of opened things up for her and others later? COACH VERSYP: I think it was big. But then Chelsea and Alex got in foul trouble. We had a big lead, and then those two got in foul trouble, and we didn't go inside as much. Liza came in and gave us some great minutes again, scored baskets, did some great things. But it always helps. There's no question that that helps. But I think Courtney knocked down some shots over‑‑ some really contested shots, too, contested baskets. Q. Your scoring numbers were way up over the average, theirs were way down over the average. Is that the case of you being hot or is some of that the Big Ten difference? Does that skew the numbers a bit? COACH VERSYP: It could. I think not playing for two weeks makes a difference for us, but it's something that we've been used to the last six years. But we did shoot the ball well. I thought we distributed the ball well, took care of the basketball. You know, defensively they just did a great job of‑‑ when we made a mistake defensively, they knocked down shots, and they had open looks, and they're a very dangerous team. Q. Just thoughts on the way KK played in her first NCAA Tournament game. COACH VERSYP: I thought she did a great job, obviously had a little scare and made sure the two doctors looked at it, her knee. But she sets the tone. Her defense will just drive anybody crazy, and that sets the tone for everyone, and when she can attack the basket as well as she does, and then she just really has been running the offense exceptionally well. I mean, her stat line, six assists, two turnovers, five steals and 12 points, I think that's an exceptionally good job by her. Q. This might be a pretty obvious answer, but it might be as simple as you have two players who are capable of getting hot, but is there any common theme between what Rayburn did earlier in the season and what Moses did tonight? COACH VERSYP: This team has really done a great job all year of someone is not doing‑‑ maybe scoring as well or getting in foul trouble. That's why it's been an ultimate team, and that's the thing, everybody is so high on Brittany, everybody has been so high on Courtney because they're the ones that can actually shoot that three and be that successful. But it's a total team effort, and I'm just glad for our team and for Courtney that she's playing so well the last three weeks. Q. What do you know about South Carolina, and again, what kind of team do you think they're like that you've played this season? COACH VERSYP: Probably similar to Texas A&M because they have good defensive pressure. They've got long arms. They're athletic, great rebounding team. They have some players that can shoot the three. And then obviously down low they can do some things, whether it's off the dribble. So we've got to be able to take some pressure off our guards a little bit, and we've got to be able to isolate a little bit down low. Q. Just to follow up, how important is it for the success of Purdue to have those multiple players that can go off any given night throughout the tournament? COACH VERSYP: I think it's huge. I mean, it's tournament time, and when you have players that can step up and score in the 20s, then you have a good chance of progressing on into the tournament. And I think that's very good, and maybe tomorrow we have two different scorers. And that's what's good about our team is you're not sure who's going to score the 20 points or the 10 points and rebound, and I think that's a huge advantage. Q. What kind of advantage is it to have these games here at Mackey Arena? COACH VERSYP: I think it really helps you with the crowd. It helps you with obviously being familiar with just the whole timing and the whole atmosphere. But it's tournament time, and South Carolina has done a great job. They've won a lot of games on the road. Right now their focus is an us‑against‑the‑world mentality, which we always try to have. Q. It seems like you might get lost in the shuffle with the great offensive effort, but talk about how important your defense was in the second half there. It seemed like you were forcing a lot more turnovers. COACH VERSYP: We talked about it. We're a defensive team, and if we're going to allow people to shoot the ball as well as they did, then it's going to be tight and they can lose the game, so I said it's a choice. So it was all about setting the tone, playing defense, getting in the passing lanes, hedging hard around screens, so we changed our defense in the second half, made adjustments, and we did really well. Q. On Liza, is it getting to the point where you're pretty confident getting her in here? There's been a couple games that she's been pretty productive with limited minutes for you. COACH VERSYP: Yeah, Liza has stepped up in her role. She's done a great job of going in, and she just has a feel for the game, and she knows how to lock out, she posts up exceptionally well, she's got great hands, and what you saw tonight, three for four, is normally what she does. She had a key block, she had key rebounds. She's just exactly developing how we need her to develop right now. Q. What was your thoughts as Courtney kept hitting shot after shot? Obviously you knew she was on fire, but did you realize that she was hitting as many as she was, or were you kind of more focused on other things? COACH VERSYP: I never realize. I'm just happy that they're making shots and they're going in. I don't realize. I don't keep count.  I'm never a stat person as the game goes on until I look at it. We're just worried about winning a basketball game and sharing the basketball and having her knock down shots, and she had an opportunity to do something special today. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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