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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 15, 2014Bree FarleyRaegan PebleyTaylor ThompsonLAS VEGAS, NEVADA Fresno State – 77 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Fresno State. Coach, just a couple comments about tonight's game. COACH PEBLEY: If I could just take a second personally and thank God because He was with us all season. We went through a lot of adversity and that adversity made us so much stronger and so much better. Really grateful. This was a great game. It never felt comfortable. Always felt like Colorado State was right on our heels. That's because Colorado State is such a good team and they're such a smart team and they play good defense. Prepping for this game, I knew we were going to have to really put two ends of the floor together. We were going to have to dominate the boards. I don't know that we dominated the boards. But we got it done. We were going to need some big performances. No better people to turn to for big performances than these two young ladies to my left. They had a great supporting cast all the way down to our bench. Even the women who didn't play, they're absolutely 100% a part of this victory. It's really, really special to coach this group and learn from them 'cause I did. I learned a lot. I grew as a coach this year coaching this team. It was really special watching how much they grew. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Taylor, were you feeling it with the threes tonight? It seemed like you really came out quickly hitting the threes. TAYLOR THOMPSON: Yeah, I mean, we definitely came into this tournament knowing what we needed to do. We came in confident tonight. We knew that we needed to hit. I mean, we did a great job getting people open. I felt like we had a lot of open shots, and that has to go for our people penetrating. So we did a great job just all‑around team effort of doing that. Q. How much do you think that softened up their defense? TAYLOR THOMPSON: When any team is hitting threes, you have to make sure you get out on 'em. That opened up the lane for us a little bit and we got some inside shots. Our team just did a great collective job inside and out. Couldn't ask for a better win. Q. Taylor, you've won four straight conference championships here. How does this one compare to the others? Do you find this any more challenging, less challenging? TAYLOR THOMPSON: You know, each year is different. Each team is different. We lost some great players going into this year with Kiki Moore and Rosy leaving. Our team and our coaches did an excellent job just throughout the year of overcoming adversity, working together, getting over humps. I mean, I'm so proud of our team for doing that. It's got us where we are. Q. You were a good three‑point shooting team, but I don't think as good as you've shown these past three games. Anything different about the tournament time? TAYLOR THOMPSON: Tournament time, we came in saying it's our time. Like I said before, we came in confident. That was good for us. We got people open. Our teammates got people open. I really think that's what was key for us, getting our shooters open. We did it. It worked out for us. Q. Can you describe the rush of walking up the ladder again. TAYLOR THOMPSON: It's certainly a great feeling. It definitely never gets old. It's awesome every year. It's something that you'll remember for the rest of your life. I definitely won't forget it. It's definitely an awesome, awesome feeling. Q. Bree, how much did the fact that you have been through these tournament runs help you the next time around? BREE FARLEY: I think it does help a lot. Especially when teams go on runs, because if you're not experienced you can get really frazzled in that type of situation. Us being more experienced, we learned to like accept the runs and not freak out, if that makes sense. I don't know. With experience, yeah, it definitely did help us today. Q. How key was it to keep Sam Martin scoreless? BREE FARLEY: I didn't realize she was scoreless, but I knew she got into foul trouble. That was definitely key for us. Being able to use our bigs more effectively, making Colorado take different shots and just to stall their offense a little bit definitely helps us. COACH PEBLEY: Being a Colorado graduate, I picked up on it. It should be Colorado State. BREE FARLEY: Colorado State, sorry. COACH PEBLEY: The sensitivity is there. THE MODERATOR: We'll continue with questions for coach. Q. Was this just better execution on the three‑pointers in the tournament? COACH PEBLEY: I don't know. I think we've really shot the three well a lot this year. I think that's something, you know, when we're able to penetrate and get into the paint, we're able to take threes off of that, then we're a team that I think can hit. But Colorado State can, too. They just had a tough night. I think we worked hard defensively, yeah, but they had some open looks, too. It was unfortunate for them and lucky for us that they didn't go down. They are absolutely, as you noted, I think first in our conference in three‑point field goal percentage defense. That was something I didn't even bring up to our team. But I was aware of it. Part of our game plan was about attacking the paint, looking to be physical, going to the rim, penetrating that zone. I think it was big that we were able to get them out of that zone and just loosen up some more options offensively. Q. Did you see a different level from Taylor today? COACH PEBLEY: No. I just think that's Taylor. Taylor Thompson is 5'3" when she stretches but she's got a giant's heart. She's a great leader, fantastic Bulldog. So excited she's going to be a GA with us and stay around. Early in the season, before practice started, we said, Taylor, you're a fifth coach on the staff. You're a coach that gets to play. These are young freshmen. I'm going to trust you. We're going to talk. We've got to talk to each other like coaches talk to each other and have that open dialogue. She owned that. Taylor, you guys don't see it, but her personality is painfully shy. She's very shy. But she steps on that floor and she's a servant to her team and does whatever it takes to win and to compete for her teammates. That's being so humble. That's the heart of a champion right there. Q. After they cut the lead, score the first basket of the half, it's a two‑point game, you responded with a 9‑0 run. How key was that? COACH PEBLEY: Well, we've talked a lot about this season, just an IQ with the game that I like our team to understand and not fear runs, know that we're going to go on runs. The system that we play does create runs. There are very good teams in our conference, and very good teams will go on their own runs. You can't be surprised when that happens because they are a good team. Also, you know, we just try to play through it, know that they were due, but stop the run. We've got specific things we talk about in stopping runs and how to do that. Senior leadership I think really stepped up. Alex Sheedy is so important to our success right now. Getting Sheedy back before the conference tournament, she got a couple games under her belt, she got to practice, feel the game back after being out for 10 games, was huge. I'm grateful her family has genetics that heals bones quickly. She's a tremendous, experienced stretch four that helped us a lot this tournament. Q. How big was that Boise game? It was the third game in the stretch of eight straight now, a downright battle to the end. How much of this run do you credit with pulling that win out? COACH PEBLEY: I think it was huge that we were able to go two in a row on that trip. We've been on the road a lot lately. We were gone that whole week, that Boise, San Diego State. We spent a lot of time together. It was kind of funny. We had one of her players leave her phone at home. She's a player that's on her phone a lot. It was just kind of cool for our team because we all just were like, This is going to be good. She's off her phone. You got to interact with each other a little bit more. They all just really poured into one another. Our team was already really, really close. But winning and having fun on that trip, it helped momentum. We had to play a very good San Jose State team who beat Colorado State, our Senior Night. A great atmosphere. A great home crowd. I think all that led into coming into this tournament beautifully. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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