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PACIFIC-12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2014Scott RueckSydney WieseSEATTLE, WASHINGTON Oregon State – 50 THE MODERATOR: All right. Welcome Oregon State coach Scott Rueck, Sydney Wiese, Ruth Hamblin. Coach, an opening remark and then we'll take questions. COACH RUECK: Okay. Just really proud of our effort tonight. I thought the team was just really gritty. Utah is such a good team, and they play a style that's not easy to play against, and certainly not comfortable. They make you really grind it out, and that's what we did tonight. So love the hustle plays. I thought the hustle plays this team made, the extra effort plays were the key to this game. There was opportunity for Utah to gain momentum in the second half, and it seemed every time they did we'd come up with a loose ball or an extra effort play, and I thought those were key to this team. So W tonight, and certainly really proud of the team for what they accomplished. Q. Coach, you've said that one of your challenges to players is to make me play you. Coming off the bench in the second half, Kolbie had some pretty good minutes. What did you think about her performance tonight? COACH RUECK: Yeah, she did. Sam is a very gifted basketball player. In the first half we chose to go small and used Gabby in the four position to back up Deven. Second half we went with Sam at the four and five, and she gave us phenomenal minutes. Both offensively and defensively, she hit the big turn around. That was a momentum‑type shot for us. I thought that was a big one. I thought she did a great job on Plouffe and slowed her down during her minutes. So that is one of the nice things about this team. We've got a lot of places to go, and everybody's producing right now. Q. How much credit do you take for the low‑score that Utah produced tonight? COACH RUECK: Well, that's what we've been doing. We've been holding teams down. Field goal percentage, defense is one of my favorite stats, well, it is my favorite, I'll be honest. I think they shot 14% in the first half. I thought we had an edge. I thought we beat them in the spots. I loved our edge and intensity in the first half. We were a little soft in the second half and I didn't love it that we fouled a few more times. But that's what this team does, when you have Ruth Hamblin behind your front line and then the four players in front of her competing like they do to stay in front of the ball. We challenged every shot, and that allowed us to control the boards as well. Q. On Hamblin, Plouffe coming off 30 points on 46% shooting last night. Does having Hamblin as almost a safety valve allow whoever was guarding Plouffe to be more aggressive on the perimeter denying her? Whether she's on the perimeter or going in the post? COACH RUECK: Yeah, whether it's on Plouffe or anyone. It allowed us to get up into them a little bit, take three‑point shooters away. But I thought Ruth was really key, first half anyway, challenging Plouffe. Anytime she put it on the floor, Ruth was there and she felt her presence. Deven did a phenomenal job first half, so did Gabby. I thought we did a pretty good job throughout the game with a few exceptions. But having Ruth slide over in a help position, I know Michelle felt that and that changed her shot. Might have made her think for a second. Take some aggressiveness away from her. The thing that Ruth is doing such a great job of is helping and recovering, and that's progress for Ruth. Getting back, because Potter is a nice shooter from 15 to 17 feet. So Ruth was able to do both of those today, which was great for us. Q. Sydney, you guys have won 10 in a row now. I think that is the first in school history or first time in a long time. It started without your best pure scorer. Are you guys aware of what you're doing or at this point are you not even thinking about it? Do you understand what a big deal this is especially with so many young players? SYDNEY WIESE: I think we're just trying to remain focused on our ultimate goal which is the NCAA Tournament. Obviously, you have to win games to get there. The past ten games have been a lot of fun, especially getting the wins, and hopefully we can continue to get a lot more wins, especially having Jamie on the floor again. She brings so much energy and we're just happy to have her back. We have a big one tomorrow and we'll prepare and work for another W. Q. Coach, three straight games under 50 points now. Do you feel like this is maybe perhaps the best defense that your team has been playing all season? COACH RUECK: Yeah, I feel like it's progressively getting better. I think for those of you that have been watching us all year, you can watch improvement from one day to the next with this group. That is partially our youth, but it's also just them wanting to compete and just come together and embrace that end of the floor. They're finding‑‑ we've talked about it, they're finding joy in defense, which makes me happy because that's the end of the floor I love. This team is competing so well. I think our length really adds to that. They're dominating the boards. I don't know what our streak is for not rebounding. It's like 17 games where we haven't been outrebounded. So they're just competing so well at that end, and that's obviously been a key to this run. Q. Scott, you said Sydney is light years ahead of where a freshman could or should be. Ruth is light years ahead of where she was last season. How rewarding has it been to see them playing this well this late in the season when you need them the most? COACH RUECK: It makes me happy. I love it for them. These are life lessons. You work hard to get rewarded. You do things right, and you guys come in every day and they progress. It's just so fun to watch them and learn to love this game at a level they never thought they could and then, gain confidence in their own abilities. They're figuring out, man, if I focus and work like this and concentrate, I can do anything. That's what they're learning. Ruth in particular has been a joy for me to watch. I love coaching both. Coach Ely and I, we team up on that. To watch her develop from a player a year ago who is unsure, just learning the game really, to this year, doubting her abilities. Knowing that she could hang and play, but not knowing how good she could be to now figuring out I can impact every possession in a big way on both ends of the floor, and really help my team, which is her ultimate goal. She's as team player as it comes. She's about everybody but Ruth. It's just a joy to watch, I think, for everybody. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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