|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2014Rachel BanhamPam BortonStabresa McDanielINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA Nebraska – 80 COACH BORTON: I was really proud of our players for really battling tonight for the entire game. I thought we played a great 35minutes. It felt like down the stretch the last six minutes of the game, you know, we missed the wide‑open lay‑up, we were down four, we missed a wide‑open lay‑up underneath, which would have cut it two, and I felt like it really affected our defense from there. We never got closer than that after missing that lay‑up. I was really proud of our players for battling tonight, and got to give a lot of credit to Nebraska for putting a great game plan together. Q. Stabresa, just kind of talk about your mindset coming off the bench and being able to do what you did tonight. STABRESA McDANIEL: I just have to play with confidence. My team and coaches gave me a lot of that. We can't always depend on Rachel and Amanda to do all the scoring, and they were playing awesome so I just drove off them and tried to attack and create others for my teammates. Q. Rachel, just kind of talk about what they were doing to kind of limit you on your looks and what you're able to do tonight? RACHEL BANHAM: Hailie Sample did a good job of face‑guarding me and playing over the screen. So even if I popped there, it wasn't very open. They did a good job of plugging the lane when I put the ball down. So they did a good job. Q. Got to be happy with that bench play, 25points, I mean, from ‑‑ history is you've got a couple of scores, but it must have been nice to see that effort from them. COACH BORTON: It really was, you know, and Mikayla Bailey and Stabresa McDaniel have been out a lot of the season with injuries, and I feel like those two are playing their best basketball this time of the year. They're kind of getting in the flow. They're getting some confidence, and I thought Mikayla and Stabresa did a great job for us. I thought Micaella Riché did a good job coming off the bench and giving us some good minutes and giving us some offense when Amanda was on the bench, but I thought our bench played very well tonight. Q. Pam, Connie said that she felt that your team deserved to be in the NCAA based on the strength of the schedule, based on the strength of the league. Last night you said you felt you should be in. But tonight, have your thoughts changed in any way? COACH BORTON: Absolutely not. I think we're a team that's got 20 wins. We're in the Big Ten. We're .500 in the league after the tournament here, and you know, we've won ‑‑ we've had a great February and a strong run here towards the end of the season. Q. Obviously I mean, with Amanda's second score for the team, how detrimental was it tonight for them, early foul trouble and they keep her on the bench as long as she was? COACH BORTON: Well, you know, I give a lot of credit to the rest of our team. We were in the game the entire game until the last six minutes. I thought Micaella Riché did a great job coming in and really filling a role and scoring for us inside and just really played smart defensively. I thought it really took Amanda really out of the flow of her game. She came in the game and scored a couple of baskets, but she didn't defend very well. She gave up a lot of points off of ball screen defense, didn't plug the lane like she was supposed to. I really thought Amanda really got her out of the flow, and I thought she really hurt us defensively tonight. But she's got to play smarter, and I thought her second foul that she picked up was 94feet from the basket going over somebody's back. Just got to play smarter so she can stay in the game. Q. Do you think with her being a freshman some of the pressures of being in the Big Ten on this stage, she had I think three or four travel calls yesterday, a couple more today, some turnovers, not catching the pass down low, do you think some of that pressure is getting to her as a freshman? COACH BORTON: I don't think it's pressure for Amanda. I think she handles things extremely well. I think she's mature beyond her years. I think she is a freshman. I think a lot of times she'll do things, she'll miss a pass, she'll travel, she'll miss an assignment defensively. This is a big game against a great team in the Big Ten, and Amanda has been consistent for us all year long, and she's going to make mistakes. You know, I think we can live with those. She needs to clean up her footwork inside. You know, sometimes she plays like a freshman, but 95percent of the year she has not. Q. Talk about Bre's game tonight. I mean, two games in a row she came in and gave some very positive things. She's also a freshman. Talk about her play tonight. COACH BORTON: Well, I think Bre is just getting more confident as the season goes on and you know, she's only been back for you know, five or six games from a concussion and she's been out with a hamstring and she's been out with a lot of different things throughout the year. I think she's playing her best basketball this time of the year and she's getting better and better each and every day and more confident. Q. I think the score was tied at 52, and it almost seems like you guys hit a wall. You talked a little bit yesterday about fatigue. Do you think there was fatigue coming in to that later part of the game? COACH BORTON: You know what, I thought our kids looked a little more tired at the beginning of the game than they did at the end. I thought our kids looked great tonight. Their shots weren't short. They were running the floor. They were defending. Nebraska has got a motion offense that makes you run all over the place. I thought our kids looked great. I thought they came down and hit three huge shots. We were in their face. Hooper hit two over the top of us. Katie hit one over the top of Mikayla when it was 52 to 52 and they went up six immediately. But I thought we battled back and tightened the score and cut it to a one‑possession game with about six minutes to go. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|