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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2013Alex BentleyCoquese WashingtonHOFFMAN ESTATES, ILLINOIS Michigan State – 54 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Coach Coquese Washington and student‑athlete Alex Bentley. We'll go straight to questions for Alex. Q. Alex, in the second half, what did Michigan State do to seal the deal for them and how were you guys unable to get things going especially in the last five minutes? ALEX BENTLEY: They played good defense. They tried to stop us from getting in the lane and forced us to go into the baseline, and we just couldn't get our offense going. Q. How frustrating is that, not to be able to get that offense going? Maggie hits those two big 3s, and I thought maybe that momentum had come and it just dropped off. How frustrating is that for you guys? ALEX BENTLEY: It's frustrating, but you just gotta keep your head, keep your cool and stay focused. Try to just stay disciplined on the game plan, play our game. Q. Now with the tournament coming up, how do you guys kind of look past this one and change things up again going into next week, kind of deja vu from last year? You'll pick up from last year to kind of advance to the tournament‑‑ ALEX BENTLEY: You can't look past it. You can't look past a loss. We take what we learned from this game and we learn from it and we get better and we use that to move forward. THE MODERATOR: At this time we'll take questions for Coach. Q. Michigan State really slowed this game down there in the middle of the second half. What did they do that maybe got you guys out of your game plan? COACH WASHINGTON: Well, Michigan State is a team that likes a slow pace. I thought we had opportunities to push the pace and we just didn't use those. But one of the things they did do was they rebounded very well. And we didn't rebound well at all during that stretch. So when you can control the boards, you have a chance to control the pace. And the second half, they certainly were the aggressors on the backboard. Q. Coach, people say all the time it's always hard to beat somebody for the third time in a season. You know, you beat Michigan State twice by double digits, what was different this time around? COACH WASHINGTON: We didn't shoot the ball well. We didn't shoot the ball well at all. And they shot the ball much better than we did. Basketball's a‑‑ it's about making baskets, and we had too many stretches where I thought we got pretty decent looks that didn't go down. I thought we had some stretches of the game where we just shot too many quick jump shots and that wasn't good. We didn't get into a flow. But I thought Michigan State played a very good defensive game. They're a very good defensive team. And they played with a lot of energy on the defensive end, a lot of enthusiasm. And we didn't match that energy. So that's the difference. Q. Moving forward now, maybe besides shooting, what is the other improvement you guys need to make next week before the tournament comes? COACH WASHINGTON: Well, you can't get too high with highs and can't get too low with lows. Basketball is a game of matchups. When you play in conference play, you know, teams are so familiar with you and know your personnel and know the things that you like to do. And you go forward to the NCAA Tournament, you don't know what your matchups are going to be, you don't know anything like that. It's a new season. We get some time off, we can rest. We can get healthy, and get ready to go to the NCAA Tournament with a renewed focus. Q. We saw regular season in the tournament kind of a mirror image of last year. What's different this year heading into the tournament, with this squad? COACH WASHINGTON: I think our confidence. And you look at this game, it's an anomaly. It might be the worst shooting game we've had all season. And again, credit Michigan State, but this isn't who we are. I'm confident we'll go into the NCAA Tournament and we'll play better offensively. I'm confident we'll go in the NCAA Tournament and we'll play better defensively. And you have nights when you just play poorly. It is what it is. It was a night that we played poorly. We shot the ball poorly. We got outrebounded. And we didn't have good flow on offense. That's not who we've been all season. So I don't think that's who we'll be in the NCAA Tournament. Q. Talked about your depth all year. You put in a number of players especially early. Still a luxury to have, right, to be able to put in all those players and have them play a decent amount of minutes? COACH WASHINGTON: Absolutely. Absolutely. Again, Michigan State played very well. They made shots. In the second half, I don't know what the score was at halftime, but Debbie Antonelli is here. She switched the ball at halftime because it wasn't great offense the first half. But they shot the ball much better the second half. And I thought they played well. I thought Michigan State played a very good game and Jasmine Thomas hit some big shots in the second half. And I also thought Becca Mills hit big shots. They did a good job moving people around, getting their shooters big shots. Again, the game comes back to making shots, and they made shots in the second half. And we didn't make enough of them, especially when it counted like probably the last five minutes. Q. Can you talk about the difference that the senior class makes and what it's going to be to have that senior leadership heading into the tournament? COACH WASHINGTON: I think when you have four, five seniors that we have that have been through so many, have so much experience, I think that will carry us. Certainly our kids are very disappointed right now. But they're a team that has good perspective and they'll keep this game in perspective. Certainly a number of lessons that we can learn and we can apply moving forward and our kids will do a great job of taking those lessons and going forward with them. But the senior class, I think they have great perspective and will be able to keep this game in perspective. Q. How much did it hurt losing Nikki to foul trouble with about eight minutes left in the first half, and do you think that stops her from getting into a flow offensively with the rest of the game? COACH WASHINGTON: Not only did it stop her from getting into a flow, I think it stopped our entire offense from getting into a flow. I thought we were doing a good job of moving the ball. And she's also a big key for us defensively, so losing her at the end of the first half, you know, it got us out of our rhythm offensively. But we had it the whole pretty much the whole second half and we never got back into the rhythm. So that's something we've got to get better at. We've gotta work on having a better flow when, offensive flow when she's not on the floor. Q. Noticed the toughness of Maggie Lucas. Certainly isn't a secret. But tonight, especially late, she made some tough 3s. Made some tough 3s. What does that say about the player she is, expanding on this stage, even down by 10 or 11 and still making those 3s? COACH WASHINGTON: She's a competitor. She's a competitor. And her drive and her will to win are very, very high. So‑‑ and not just her, the entire team. Our drive and our competitive fire is high. We just met a team tonight that played better than we did, shot the ball better than we did, and rebounded better than we did. So that's why we didn't get the win. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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