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MOUNTAIN WEST WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP


March 7, 2017


Jamie Craighead

Paris Baird

Myzhanique Ladd


Las Vegas, Nevada

Colorado State - 65 San Jose State - 60

COACH JAMIE CRAIGHEAD: You know, I think people got their money's worth today. Colorado State was really good. My team battled. We had our moments. But I thought a tremendous effort by both teams. Obviously we came up short, but tremendously proud of my team and the effort put forth today. And I really think we played a very talented basketball team and played them very well, even though we were struggling offensively. So I was really proud of our effort.

Q. Paris, kind of noticed in the first half they really isolated on Dezz and Jas, I think combined in the first half they had nine shot attempts. It seemed like you had to carry the burden of being left open. Did you feel some pressure there or were they just defending well all around as far as the first half is concerned? Because the second half you guys found some chemistry.
PARIS BAIRD: I think we just needed to move the ball around. We depend a lot on Jas and Dezz, but we just needed other people to step up. And I just felt that.

Q. Yesterday seemed to be a little bit more fluid. Did you have to change the game plan, Coach, for either one of the players? It's such a back-to-back quick turnaround, and as far as the strategy, what was different about today that you have to do differently from yesterday?
COACH JAMIE CRAIGHEAD: Well, obviously Colorado State is a much better defensive team than San Diego State. We feel we can use our full arsenal of offense against San Diego State. Colorado State played us in a 2-3 zone most of the night, an extended 2-3. Anytime we could get inbounds we could go against their man and we seemed to be pretty successful that way.

We were prepared as you can be. We tried to move Dezz around, get her in the high post, get her off the top. Get Jasmine some looks inside. They're the best defensive team in our conference, and I think one of the best defensive teams in the country. It makes it much more difficult. I thought they did a really good job in the second half of moving, we were stagnant and settled for some early quick threes that weren't falling tonight.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about I guess guarding Ellen, you did a good job in both halves. How tough of a matchup is she for you who are on her most of the time?
MYZHANIQUE LADD: I really didn't guard her most of the time. It was mostly Paris, keeping her from the block, where she's strong from. She knows how to work that position. Paris did a great job. I had two minutes on her, but at the same time I saw what Paris did, making sure she's not on her block, that's her strongest point, she likes to do her turnaround hooks, and we prevented that.

Q. What do you think you could have done better offensively? They kept moving their zone defense out on you guys, and you didn't seem to get the ball on the inside in the first half.
MYZHANIQUE LADD: I mean, like coach said, they're a great defensive team. We tried many strategies. I mean I don't know what else to say. We tried everything in the book. At times it didn't work. At times it did work. But I don't think I would have wanted it any other way, because we scored. We came back. We had great energy. We weren't going to stop.

Q. If you had that energy the whole night do you think it might have been a different outcome?
MYZHANIQUE LADD: Is that just for me or is this for everybody?

Q. I'll ask Paris.
PARIS BAIRD: I don't think it was more the energy. We had energy from the start. I think it was just being stagnant in offense and their 2-3, we don't get that look a lot from other teams. So that hurt us a little bit. So that was it. We never quit and that's what I loved about playing today.

COACH JAMIE CRAIGHEAD: Colorado State obviously has great length. Their zone versus what another zone might look like, it kind of gets you to stand around a little bit and we've struggled with that against them at our place.

But the fact that we could come back on this team and got something going and put some pressure on them. We just couldn't get over the hump. If we could have gotten past that one or two possessions. But when we needed to score and tie it up, we didn't, and then they'd go down and get a second possession. It kept extending it to the five, and we cut it to the one possession. If we could have gotten over the hump we could have closed it out. But obviously they made the plays when they needed to.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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