|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
PACIFIC-12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2014June DaughertyLia GaldeiraSage RombergSEATTLE, WASHINGTON Washington State – 91 THE MODERATOR: We welcome and congratulate Washington State coach June Daugherty, and we have Lia Galdeira and Sage Romberg. COACH DAUGHERTY: Good afternoon or good evening. Congratulations to Cal on their tremendous regular season. They're a great team. Obviously, being in the Final Four last year and most of their pieces back, it was a battle. I don't think the score indicates how tough the game really was. But we're excited to see our bench come alive. Playing back‑to‑back games and scoring almost a hundred points again within 24 hours is an amazing accomplishment. But it takes talent. It's not just the starters. It was a total bench effort, team effort all the way. We talked about going into the game with the enormous amount of respect that we had for Cal. We lost in overtime down there about a week ago, and we felt like we knew they were a really talented team, but we felt we were going to have to leave it out on the floor and play as hard as we could with each other and play with heart. And that's what these kids did. It was an exciting win for the program and another step, survive and advance. So we look forward to whoever we play tomorrow. Q. Sage, how does it feel to jump in and join Lia in the 1,000 point club? SAGE ROMBERG: It feels good. It's like, finally, you know. Good job to Lia. She's only a sophomore, so I think she'll be at the 2,000 point mark. LIA GALDEIRA: No, good job, Sage. Q. Coach, last night you said there was some unfinished business. You alluded to the overtime loss. Even at home you had been neck and neck with Cal and went on a pretty blistering run. What changed tonight? COACH DAUGHERTY: I just think that for us we didn't get frustrated with the tremendous quality of play that their inside game brings with Gray and Brandon and on and on and on. We tried to weather the storm, so to speak. We knew they were going to get there, 20, 30, whatever it was going to be. But we felt like as long as we didn't foul and didn't give them the three‑point plays, that we had enough offense on our side of the bench to get it done. So we were able to do it. But we really felt like we had them in overtime. We don't think it should have gone overtime down there, but it did. It came down to a call. One call that was a little bit of a heartbreaker to us. But to Cal's credit, they came back in overtime on their home court and were able to get it done. But we left Haas Pavilion with a bad taste in our mouth from that. We felt like we let it get away, unfinished business. That is something that fuelled these guys the past week or so getting ready for the tournament. We won the second chance at it today, and we took advantage of it. Q. Coach, with that, taking them to overtime and this being your fourth win against a ranked team, do you want to kind of coin a different term instead of continuing to all these upsets seeing how you're hanging with these teams? COACH DAUGHERTY: I just want to keep winning. This, as you guys can see, is a really fun team to coach and be a part of. Truly, not only are they talented, but they play so hard for each other and they give it their all, they really do. You know, as a coach for almost 30 years, you don't always get this kind of pleasure of watching these kids compete the way they're competing for each other, so we just want to keep it going. You guys can write about upsets or however you want to coin the phrase, but we want to keep winning and playing for a long time in March. Q. Lia, can you speak a little bit about how the basket felt to you in the beginning of the second half? You hit a three and just screamed out loud. Did it seem that you couldn't miss at that point? LIA GALDEIRA: Well, I mean, I have a problem with not taking it to the hole and always pulling up for threes. Once I hit that one, I just kind of felt comfortable. It was just a feeling. Q. At this think Tia's only points came in that three‑pointer when you guys were up five or six points. Cal was making a run. She stepped back and hit that shot at the buzzer at the shot clock. What did that shot mean? COACH DAUGHERTY: That was a total adrenaline rush for everybody. The bench exploded. We've looked to Tia and Lia so much this year for the big shots. It was fun. To us, that's fun to see Lia do that. Sorry, Tia to do that at the buzzer. It's just exciting. The energy keeps building, the enthusiasm. You look down the bench and towels are waving, kids are jumping up‑and‑down. It's what college sports is all about. But that was kind of maybe the straw that maybe broke their back a little bit. Q. Lindsay talked about how tough it was for them.  They felt like they were hanging on because you guys were up and you kind of weren't letting them back in all the way. How important do you think it was to maintain that margin? Because they cut it to six at one point toward the end, but they didn't get closer than that. COACH DAUGHERTY: Well, I think it goes back to our bench. We had so many people step up tonight, and Taylor Edmondson I think had a great game last night too. I thought Lex came in off the bench and gave us some great minutes at the point guard. Hana Potter came in; everybody contributed. It was a total team win for us. I think that we've learned it's a game of runs. On the timeout, we knew that Cal was going to make their run. But this group has decided about 15 games ago to handle runs and to show poise and know that we've always got a run in our back pocket to come back with. When they do that, it makes it pretty easy to coach them because they stay with it. Nobody tries to just take over or do something crazy. We just try to stay with it and play team basketball. Q. June, what are your views on pull‑up threes in transition like Lia took there? COACH DAUGHERTY: Well, she was going against‑‑ what I'm thinking about is when she went against Brittany Boyd, and Brittany had three or four. I'm thinking take her to the rim. No, no, good shot. But she's a talented kid. She just had her thousandth point as a sophomore last night. You know, Lia does a lot of interesting things on the basketball court. There is never a game or practice that something doesn't happen that myself or my assistant coaches or teammates thought, what the heck? How did she do that? How did she split that trap or get that rebound? So she's blessed with a lot of athleticism, and she's a fierce competitor. How do I feel about it when they go in? Great job. Q. You alluded to that Presley three that was pretty key in those final moments. That came off Galdeira since she drew a double team. How much has she improved off the bench? How much more dangerous does that make this team going forward? COACH DAUGHERTY: Talking about Lia right now? Yeah, I think that Lia had a fantastic opportunity this past summer. She was invited to the USA tryouts and she was there with Olympians, and went through a great, great experience. Unfortunately, she didn't make either team, and she came back to Pullman in the off‑season, and she was way more focused on adding things to her game, getting in better shape, getting stronger, getting quicker. It's pretty neat when you see a kid not get disheartened about something like that and instead turns it into a positive. It's great to see her development. She's got a ways to go. She's got some things to improve on. But we'll take where she's at right now and keep building. Q. Sage, can you talk about the environment? I know it was electric yesterday, but it seemed like today even more fans? SAGE ROMBERG: Yeah, the fans are great. Our bench had lots of energy, and I think everyone on the court had lots of energy. It was an awesome environment to play in and a fun game. Q. Obviously we talked about the big shot late, but you had some huge shots early. What were you feeling when you were out there tonight? SAGE ROMBERG: I was just trying to take everything that was given to me, and I'm glad I could knock down some shots for the team and get some points on the board. Q. June, as talented as they are on the inside, it looked like you guys were trying to attack. Were you trying to get Gray in foul trouble? What was the theory there? COACH DAUGHERTY: No, I think Dheensaw, we had a lot of confidence in her, and she felt like she had a little bit of a size advantage. It started with the tip, she got it, and she was fired up about that. They're very athletic, with Gray and Brandon especially. But Shalie continues to develop every day, and she feels very good about her step back, creating space against that kind of size and length. But it's hard, you go with the left‑hand hook today and a couple other good moves. So same thing with Mariah Cooks. I mean, what a game she had. Huge game. I'm surprised nobody talked about what a game she had and the run that she had. I thought Mariah showed great poise today. You know, she didn't go to her spin move until late in the game because when Boyd was in there; they were digging down. They know her play. But I thought she got some direct lines. She was going to go to the rim and find a way to get two or three‑point plays. But Mariah had an unbelievable run for us in that second half. Q. You guys are back in the semifinals for the second time in three years. How does that feel? SAGE ROMBERG: It feels really good. It shows how far this program has come since I've come here. It's good to be back in the semifinals, for sure. COACH DAUGHERTY: It's exciting. Let's keep going. Thank you, guys. 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
|