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AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2014Jose FernandezInga OrekhovaCourtney WilliamsUNCASVILLE, CONNECTICUT Louisville - 60 THE MODERATOR: Joining us is head Jose Fernandez, and Courtney Williams and Inga Orekhova. Coach? COACH FERNANDEZ: I think everybody is probably going to remember that last minute of the game. I told our kids, everybody remembers that last minute, that last two minutes of the game because it's the last thing that happens. There are so many possessions in a basketball game, I thought in the first half, you're down 4, we gave up free‑throw blockouts, and in the second half we didn't give up any second‑chance points. I've been very proud of this group, and I think this group has shown when we are totally healthy we can play with anybody in the country. You know, our only losses since Jan are to UConn and Louisville. I think we came out at this conference tournament and this team pleaded itself case to the NCAA Tournament Committee. I was proud of our kids and their fight and it's a tough way to lose but I think this team has a lot of basketball left to play this year. We will see what happens. Q. Coach, how many bids do you think this conference deserves and does it hurt or help that you're losing just to UConn or Louisville? Does it hurt or help to have those two teams at the top of the conference? COACH FERNANDEZ: If you look how we did, Louisville is 3 in the country, we lost to them at home by 7 and this game could have gone either way last minute. We held UConn to their lowest total all year, 63. So I think you gotta take a look at how many do we deserve? I think we deserve to get in. We went on the road and beat Rutgers on their home floor at the end of the year and finished third in the league. You look at our losses, our losses were in Decemberwhere we had our second‑leading scorer out for twelve days. We had three other girls that were injured during that span. Those losses were four or five‑point losses. So if you look into this team's make‑up and what we have done, you know. So, what, we won 8 out of our last 10? We're playing good basketball. There are other teams around the country in BCS leagues that have lost 7 of 9 or 6 of their last 8. We will see what happens. Q. Coach, biggest thing you tell your team to get 'em back ready for a Tournament game? COACH FERNANDEZ: We got guys that last year‑‑ you know, last year we lose in overtime to go to Sweet 16 to Cal who went to the Final Four. It's spring break for us next week. We don't have classes. We will have time off. We don't know what will happen until Monday night of next week so we will get them back at the tail end of the week and get back to work. Q. Courtney, how is the ankle? You played forty minutes and Coach thought you were going to be questionable. You put on a heck of an effort with a bad ankle. COURTNEY WILLIAMS: It's all right, it was a baby strain, I just twisted it a little bit, it wasn't nothing major. COACH FERNANDEZ: You had me worried at shootaround today. Q. Talk about her, he had she had a 40‑minute job defensively on Schimmel, she came in and did a great job. COACH FERNANDEZ: Courtney is a tough kid. Both these guys, I thought‑‑ I was worried in shootaround because she wasn't moving as laterally as much as I thought she would be, but getting that assignment on Schimmel and we tried to rest her and put Stringfield on Schimmel but the young lady next to her wanted the ball in her hands and hit some really big shots we were in a position were we usually play nine, ten guys and Inga and Courtney haven't played forty minutes all year and how Inga was shooting the basketball, and Courtney we were trying to isolate her on different parts of the floor. Q. Inga and Courtney can you address the last minutes of the game and the three‑pointers you put up and how confident were you taking those shots? You took a long one at the end. How confident were you that it was going down? Do you wish you had done something else? INGA OREKHOVA: You always wish that you had done something else after the game, but we played our hearts out. We can't look back and think oh we wish we would have done that different or this different but I feel like you have to have confidence to shoot the ball. Q. (Away from mic.) COURTNEY WILLIAMS: I feel like you always have to be confident when you're takin' shoots like that. The last shot was tough. I jabbed, she stepped, to gave me the three and I took it, can't take it back now, what's done is done, gotta get back in the gym and hopefully get to the NCAA Tournament. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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