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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2015Mike CareyAveree FieldsTeana MuldrowDALLAS, TEXAS WVU – 59 COACH CAREY: I thought our effort was tremendous. I thought our first two times against them, they played harder than we did. Tonight I thought we played hard. Neither team was scoring in the beginning, but that's what we do. We've got to keep the game close, and eventually we start hitting shots but we've got to keep the game close. I look at the stats here, they shot 17 percent the second half, that's pretty good to hold them there. I thought we did a good job on Amber Battle. At their place she had 33 on us, so I thought we did a good job not letting her get going because they get going -- when she gets going, they get going, so I thought we did a good job there. Q. For both Averee and Teana, just curious, that stretch where Bria banged in the two three-pointers there, it seemed like even you guys had little grins on your face. Could you tell maybe things were going to be a little different at that point. AVEREE FIELDS: I think hitting a bank shot three is once in a game, so she hit two in a row and I think we laughed because what are the odds of that. But I think it just showed how hard we were playing and we got some buckets to go in and we were working really hard, so I think that was a great reward. COACH CAREY: I will say this, I did tell them at the timeout, if she does it the third time, she's going to have to call it. TEANA MULDROW: I just think those two shots really got us going. Any time we could get Bria going I think that really helps us. We were pretty excited about those two shots. Q. Averee, what was the team's mindset going down the stretch? Obviously the other night against Kansas State, the lead got away from you and the game. Is this what were you guys thinking? AVEREE FIELDS: I think we were just focused. We didn't want to let up, we wanted to make sure we keep going at them throughout the whole game because what got us there was our high intensity. So we didn't want to let up, we wanted to keep, even down the stretch, keep pushing, keep running our break and not trying to slow it down too much, but I think we did a much better job executing. Q. Teana, are you guys just sort of looking at this now as a second season kind of thing, especially after the disappointment after the other night? TEANA MULDROW: Definitely. Coming to the tournament is definitely a new season. No one -- what happened in the regular season is basically not carried over to this. This is zero-zero, no one has any wins against anybody, anybody can take the title, so this is definitely a new season for us. Q. This is for both. You guys lost both games this season. Was there a different mindset coming into this game? AVEREE FIELDS: Absolutely. It's always frustrating to get beat, and to get beat twice in our conference is not something that we're proud of. So to come to this game knowing that it's win or go home, we definitely had a different mindset. We need to stay and just play hard and I think we did that. Q. Teana, would you answer the question also? TEANA MULDROW: Yeah, just different mind et, just do or die, just play as hard as you can, leave everything on the floor and just play your hardest, just do your best. You just try to have the best mindset possible, just stay positive. Even when things are getting bad, just stay positive. Q. This question's for Averee. The records between the home and away in the Big 12 have been starkly different, and playing in Texas against a Texas team, did you come into this game looking as if it was an away game? AVEREE FIELDS: Definitely not because we haven't done well away. I think we realize it's a neutral court and so I think I definitely have the mindset it's a neutral court, it's anybody's game. They have more of a crowd because yes, they're from here, but I think that we had a different mindset than playing away that we know this is tournament time and anything can happen so we have our eyes set on the championship game and so we have to make sure we take care of each step and each game. Q. Averee, if you look at your side of the bracket, you had beaten every team on it except for Texas Tech, which you took care of tonight. Does that give you added confidence as you move on? AVEREE FIELDS: I think that, you know, every team that we play in the Big 12's going to be a tough game, so I won't say that I'm happy about what side, but I think that we can beat any team that we come up against in the Big 12. So whoever our next matchup is, which is Oklahoma, I think we can win that game as well. Q. Coach Carey, good win today, first of all. It seemed like in the beginning of the game you were playing extended minutes for Kayla Montgomery, something that hasn't really happened a lot this season. Is that based solely on the size advantage or was that a different game plan you were trying? COACH CAREY: You know what, no, there was no strategy in that. I thought Lanay wasn't moving very well in the beginning so we tried Kayla. I thought she played well when she went in, and if you play well, you're going to go back in, you'll continue to go in. And it's not all about scoring, it's about playing defense, blocking out, rebounding. I thought she was doing a good job at that time. Q. Coach, after looking at this stat sheet 21 turnovers, can you touch on that? COACH CAREY: Yeah, I think we had, what? How many did we have at halftime? 14, 15 at halftime and I addressed that for about five minutes taking care of the ball. We come out the first three possessions, had two turnovers. Yeah. We did it the other night against Kansas State, had 18 turnovers and we lost the game. I thought we've got to take care of the ball better tomorrow against Oklahoma or it's not going to be the same outcome. We played hard, though. Our team played hard. They got on the floor, they got up the lanes and they got to the ball. Other than that, the turnovers, I was pretty happy what we did. Q. A couple things. Looked like Bria maybe tweaked her ankle there late in the game and the early word on that? And Bre McDonald, I know she can make a lot of plays out there for you but I know it's frustrating at times with some of the lapses. COACH CAREY: Yeah. Q. She's somebody obviously can help you that you're going to need. COACH CAREY: And again what I said earlier, you know, the frustrating about this year, you don't know what's going to happen, who's going to be ready to play, who's not going to be ready to play. It's been a frustrating year that way. We'll try everybody and see who's ready to play. Back to Bria Holmes, we couldn't put her back in, we were told she couldn't go back in, so the extent of her injury, I don't know. Q. I was just curious how you think the delays and the travel and the snow storm and the tumultuous ravel to get here, do you think that caused sloppy play in the beginning of the game at all? COACH CAREY: Have you been on other trips with us? No. Look at our record on the road. We won one game on the road, but that's how we play. Sometimes we've got to make the game ugly. Our defense makes the game ugly. I'm okay with that. Let's get on the floor, let's get aggressive, let's bang. We're okay with that, but we've got to keep the game close until we start -- quit turning the ball over and start hitting some shots, and when we did that the second half, you saw us take a big lead. I think we went up, what, 17 real quick. That's the runs you look for. But you have to continue to play defense and rebound. If you look at the stats, we had more points in the paint than they did. Points off turnovers, we had more points. Second chance points, those were the offensive rebounds we gave up. We were disappointed in that. So tomorrow we've got to take care of the basketball a little bit better, can't let them have those second chance points. Oklahoma's going to come in and play hard because we beat them the last game at our place and they've had fresh legs. Speaking about travel, you know, we've been delayed almost every trip either going out or coming back but that's part of it, that's part of it. You can't use that as an excuse, you've just got to play. And I was proud of our girls that they continued to play, that they came out ready to play. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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