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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 14, 2014Chelan LandryJoe LegerskiKayla WoodwardLAS VEGAS, NEVADA Colorado State – 95 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Wyoming. Coach, if you could make a few opening remarks about today's game. COACH LEGERSKI: Well, I've only been involved in a three‑hour basketball gameone other time. There's plays to be made, there's plays that are left out on the floor. But the heart from the players on the floor were just tremendous today. It just seemed like we were always trying to maybe have one more possession. And I thought Kaitlyn Mileto came through and hit two big free throws to send us into an overtime. Kaylee Hoffman, a senior, hits one. So you start taking a look at what was happening in that game. Both teams had several very good players sitting on the bench in foul trouble. I thought that the players that stepped on the floor for the players that had fouled out gave tremendous effort. That's all you can ever ask. As I always tell 'em, we just needed the ball to bounce our way one more time. But I'm proud of this group, that goes 1 through 13, because we had to call on people in the third overtime that probably have not seen the court for quite some time. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Chelan, can you describe the emotion, especially in the second half of the game. CHELAN LANDRY: I think personally we were just trying to get over a hump. Seems like we were either always down two or down three, trying to catch back up, but didn't. In the second overtime, we were up. But then I fouled and they got to the free‑throw line and we tied it again. The game just went up and down through every overtime, the five minutes. They were up, we were up. It just kept going back and forth. Q. You played a lot of minutes in the second half, overtime. Physically have you ever played that many minutes? CHELAN LANDRY: I'm a little beat. It's my senior year. I tried to go out and do everything that I could for my last game. I think I did that. I just needed to make a couple more free throws, a couple more layups. But we came up short. I love the way we played. We all played with heart. We didn't give up. We fought till the end. Q. Kayla, you're one of the many that unfortunately fouled out. What is it like sitting on the bench in a game like this? KAYLA WOODWARD: I mean, we all had confidence in the team. We kept saying, They got it, we can still do it. It was back and forth, like Chelan said. We'd be down, they'd be down, tied. We had a lot of faith in them. They fought hard till the very end. Q. Kaitlyn, what was so difficult in the first half before you got going? KAITLYN MILETO: Their defense was to stop us from scoring. That's what they did. They held us really well. They followed their game plan really well to stop what we were trying to throw at them. We just keep fighting through that period of time and hope that we can get something going. Q. Kayla, looked like you wanted to be a little more aggressive going to the basket. KAYLA WOODWARD: It just seemed like, even the last time we played them, they were really guarding the threes. We have to be aggressive to try to score, to try to even kick out that will get our threes open. So always being aggressive helps. Q. Chelan, what was this game like for you obviously being a senior? How much of a sense of urgency did you feel throughout the overtimes to keep pushing? CHELAN LANDRY: I had a lot of sense of urgency. This was by far one of the best games I've had playing at Wyoming. We've never gone in double overtime, triple overtime, whatever we did. I just kept pushing the ball, you know, trying to get my teammates open, Kaitlyn for threes. Trying to distribute in any way I could. Q. Kaitlyn, do you hope you keep playing here, to find a post‑season tournament? KAITLYN MILETO: Absolutely. We're not done playing basketball. Especially for our three seniors, we want to continue to play for them especially. So whatever we get we'll take gratefully. THE MODERATOR: We'll continue with questions for Coach Legerski. Q. Obviously the three overtime game you reference was the NIT game for you guys. Is there any kind of comparison to this game? COACH LEGERSKI: I think when you take a look at games like this, you think about as a coach all the plays that you left on the floor, whether it's a missed free throw, a missed layup. But then you start realizing how many plays were made on both sides of the basketball. That part of it was very evident out there. Neither team gave in. It was possession by possession, big play by big play. Pretty soon you sit back as a coach and you just marvel that a player comes up with another play. We have Kayla Woodward fouling, Lewis, two of our top scorers sitting on the bench. Kayla played 50 minutes. She would have played 55 if it wasn't for foul trouble. We weren't going to take her out. You're just pleased with the plays that are made from sometimes players that surprise you. I thought Chelan got us going with a big three there in the second half that energized us. Once again, our crowd is unbelievable. So much energy to play in front of Wyoming fans. They were able to get that group going again. That in and of itself is something that just gets you through three overtimes. Q. Talk about your senior play in the second half. COACH LEGERSKI: It's always difficult. You bring them in as freshmen. Everyone wants to play. Then they start realizing whether or not they're good enough. You convince them to hang in there and you're going to be part of something special in your four years. I think that is definitely what Chelan and Kaylee have gone through. To see Kaylee shoot that shot, she stepped right up and did what we talk about, knocked it down. Then, more importantly, we defended and battled throughout the whole time. Like I said, you give CSU credit. They did the same thing. They were sitting with players on the bench, asking people to step up, make plays. It was just one of those classic games that everybody's going to remember and talk about. Q. You mention there were so many plays made by most teams. You missed 17 free throws. You mentioned layups. What was the biggest? COACH LEGERSKI: I think when you take a look at it, we both shot mid 40s from the free‑throw line. We shoot 45, they shoot 43. They make 32, we make 28. It's a three‑point ballgame. It's not only about when you miss 'em but it's about when you make 'em as well. That's about Kaitlyn stepping up and making two big ones. Colorado State stepped up and made a lot of big throws down the stretch. You give credit where credit's due. I think free throws is a big phase of what you take a look at in this basketball game. Q. You mentioned some unlikely contributors. You've asked for Kaylie to play big minutes before. 12 points, battling. Talk about the performance from her continuing to battle there. COACH LEGERSKI: Kaylie Rader is a young player who is just trying to figure out how to play. When I talk about that, it's with the intensity. She was intense today. She gave us everything she could. That's all I can ask. All of a sudden we had an inside presence. That's something that we've been looking for all season long. It's very hard to keep winning from 15 to 22 feet with jump shooters. Kaylie gave us that big lift today, going six of ten, 12 points, grabbed some rebounds. I'm very pleased and I'm glad she's a freshman. She's only going to continue to get better. Q.  Did anything change with Kaitlyn, scoreless in the first half, didn't seem to be in a rhythm, then stepped up when she felt like she needed to? COACH LEGERSKI: I think the biggest thing with shooters is confidence. Shooters like to be able to make shots to keep giving them that confidence. We got Kaitlyn open on a curl. She made it. You could see a smile start happening. Then she hits a three. That's so much of a shooter's mentality. They're going to keep shooting the basketball, but you want that confidence. They get confidence very quickly, just by making one or two shots. Then I thought Kaitlyn became a little more aggressive. Even at the end we had a design that Chelan was going to push the basketball, but we were trailing Kaitlyn in to almost shoot it just on the other side of halfcourt. Kaitlyn was there, too. But I thought Chelan had a very good look at it. Ball just didn't go down. Q. Was there anything wrong with Jordan in the second half or was it matchup issues? COACH LEGERSKI: No, the biggest thing was is you take a look at what we needed energy‑wise. We talked about going small over the two days that we had to prepare for this. It gives us ability to be able to put the ball on the floor and attack. Then I thought when you take a look at Kaylie Rader, I guess a post scorer scoring at a 60% clip. I have to keep her in the basketball game as much as possible. The other thing that I thought was important with Kaylie, she made some great passes. She only has one assist, but I thought we missed a few of the lay‑ins that were passes by her. That just gives me so much confidence in having Kaylie on the floor because of her passing ability and also giving us the bonus of points today. Q. Do you feel this is a team that is deserving of playing in the post‑season? COACH LEGERSKI: I don't know. I like this group. They always give me a lot of fight. You get down 12, 13 points. I talk to them about just stepping up and winning the next four minutes. We talked about that in the second half. We cut the lead from 13 to 8 to 4, to 3, to 2, to finally a tie. Every media timeout, all we're talking about is that we're winning. That's the mentality we play with. We don't talk about what the score is. How are we playing at that timeframe. You could see our bench, they started believing that we were cutting into this lead little by little and going to have an opportunity. So if post‑season comes, this group I know will be anxious to play. But it's not what I base everything for us on right now for this team. In a couple days I'll be wanting to play, but right now we probably all hurt just a bit. But what a basketball game. Like I said, give Colorado State a great deal of credit. They made a lot of plays as well with having players on the bench. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. COACH LEGERSKI: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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