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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: WACOMarch 18, 2017Nikki FargasAlexis HyderRaigyne MoncriefWaco, Texas Cal - 55, LSU - 52 NIKKI FARGAS: These two young ladies sitting up here, I can't express enough how important they are to the success of the LSU program. Obviously we're going to have Raigyne Moncrief next year, but Alexis Hyder is one of the toughest, undersized, versatile post players in the game, and I'm proud to be her coach, along with the exceptional player in Rina Hill, our other senior, who is one of the hardest working players I've ever coached and been around. Jasmine Rhodes, who's our other senior, who will be missed, with her versatility to play the 4. We're an undersized team but a team with a big heart, and I can't say enough about giving Cal the credit. They did what they needed to do. I thought Thomas had an unbelievable night from the three-point line, and we missed some of our defensive coverages, but the fight that we had in us to really get them turned over 20 plus times, our ability to make stops against a team that was taller than us, I commend our team for having the heart and the fight. It's been a journey for us. A lot of ups and downs, but this group has been pretty special. For us to turn the program around where we were last year and to see them a year later, that's improvement, and we're going to build off of that. Q. Alexis, could you just describe what you saw on that last play? ALEXIS HYDER: Which last play? Q. The lay-up that got blocked. ALEXIS HYDER: I saw the lane, and I wanted to make contact, which I thought I did. It just didn't go our way. I wanted to get her in the air, and I thought it was a good drive. There's things I thought I could have done differently, but I was just trying to take the best shot for the team. Q. Alexis, how were you so effective against Kristine Anigwe? ALEXIS HYDER: I understand that I'm undersized, and I take advantage of that. I understand that many 6'5" people do not want to guard around the perimeter. They don't want to guard pick-and-pops, they don't want to guard off the dribble, so taking advantage of that opened up the court, and that's why Ayana Mitchell was great down the stretch and that's why Chloe and Rai were easily getting to the lane, because we opened up the floor. Q. Raigyne, you and Chloe both kind of started off a little slow, and then you stepped up. Kind of talk about that difference in the second half. RAIGYNE MONCRIEF: We got a lot of talk from the coaches and motivation from our teammates, and they were just saying that we've been doing this all year, and just play our game and relax, and I think we just came up there, we started the game kind of really off, and we just started knocking down shots and making plays, especially Chloe Jackson. Q. Was it something Cal was doing to start the game that threw you guys off, or was it something for yourselves that threw you off? ALEXIS HYDER: I mean, like Coach said, they were a good team and came out playing hard, but I think we could have came out better offensively, and our shots weren't falling. They were just hot. Our shots weren't falling, their shots were falling, and things didn't go our way. I don't think that it was anything specific. We were getting the looks we've been getting all year, and it just didn't go our way. The same screens we've been setting all year, we got them, the same flares, we got all the screens and everything we wanted to get the looks, we just couldn't knock them down early. Q. Coach, which home game and which road game that you saw that you all won or lost that you saw coming down the stretch the team was growing and they were headed in the right direction? NIKKI FARGAS: In our last game against Mississippi State in the SEC tournament, I thought our team battled a very good basketball team, obviously someone who's a No. 2 seed, potentially could have been a No. 1 seed, and I thought we played extremely hard for about 36 minutes. The first time that we played Mississippi State in January, they beat us pretty good, and to see the improvement that we made in that short period of time, I felt really good about our chances going into NCAA Tournament play. Q. Coach, you kind of talked about those turnovers, and I know that was the game plan going into this, to kind of negate their size advantage. Is tonight what you had in mind there? NIKKI FARGAS: From a turnover standpoint, it definitely played to our favor to turn them over 20 plus times. We didn't always convert like we had been in the past off of those turnovers. I thought our offensive board play allowed us to get some second and third looks, but again, late game, down the stretch, we've got to make plays, and we can't -- things that we're going to get nailed out. Every place that we missed, an and-one opportunity, we've got to go try to score the ball, and I think this group is very well aware that they've got to make their own breaks, and I think those are life lessons for them, that you're going to have to make them in life, as well, when you leave here. It's a 40-minute game, and the beginning of the game, I know you mentioned that, I thought we missed our defensive coverage. Again, I'm going to highlight Thomas for Cal. I thought she was huge in the play action. We had a lot of good looks. Moncrief -- if you would have told me Moncrief and Jackson were going to go 0 for 13 in the first half, they hadn't done that all season, and so that's just part of it, and the fight that they had, though, in the second half, I'm really proud of this group. Q. What particular adjustments did you make at halftime going into the second half? NIKKI FARGAS: We tried to extend our defense a little bit more, tried to disrupt them in the backcourt, thought our pressure took some time off the clock and delayed and disrupted them. I thought from a half-court defensive standpoint, we really tried to apply more ball pressure and tried to disrupt the ball handler so the ball couldn't see inside. We knew their size was going to be an issue, so it's something that we've had to battle all year. But moving forward, we've got size coming in, so hopefully we can still play that sustained, aggressive style of play but have the size to combat the inside play of some of the teams that we faced that were bigger than we were. Q. In that same vein, talking about next year, what is the next step for this team? NIKKI FARGAS: You know, it's tough right now because you've got three seniors that mean the world to me personally. I can't say enough about those three, having had to just endure last year having six players and those three being the three returning. You just want to keep playing basketball for them. But next year, the future of the LSU program is very good. We've got a great class coming in. We return some experience. We also signed a young lady with size, Raven Farley. We missed Faustine Aifuwa, our 6'5" kid. I think she really would have made a difference had she not been out this season with a knee injury. We'll get her back. So along with some really good guards, we are going to still be athletic and quick on the perimeter, but we're going to be bigger. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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