BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 2, 2023

Amy Williams

Sam Haiby

Jaz Shelley

Target Center

Nebraska Cornhuskers

Postgame Press Conference

Michigan State - 67, Nebraska - 64

AMY WILLIAMS: Obviously we're incredibly disappointed to lose. We came up here to win and advance and make a run in this tournament. So it's incredibly disappointing to walk away with this loss.

I thought our kids fought to the final buzzer but just did not play the complete 40 minutes that it takes to win this time of year.

Q. Sam, they got up ten there real quick in the fourth quarter. Just what did you guys have to do to get back in the game?

SAM HAIBY: Obviously we got off to a really bad start in the fourth quarter. We've been talking about that all season. If we want to win games, we have to go out ready to win from the jump. Like Coach said, we gave a lot of fight and never gave up and gave ourselves a chance at the end.

Q. Jaz, you guys get within three there. Just that last 16 seconds, how did you feel about the chances you got out of that situation?

JAZ SHELLEY: Like Sam said, we fought to the end, and I think that we executed very well. Everyone on our team really wanted to win that game, so we did absolutely everything we could. I'm proud of us for that.

Q. Did you get the shot you wanted there with five seconds left, ten seconds left?

JAZ SHELLEY: Not necessarily no, but we found a way to still play through it.

Q. Jaz, the turnovers, I guess, you're going to have some turnovers, but what were the turnovers that were really deflating or crushing to you guys?

JAZ SHELLEY: It was definitely in their press to start off with. You're never going to win a game if you start like that. It's just they sped us up, and we didn't respond very well. That's why I think we lose by three.

Q. Sam, what are you impressed by what Michigan State did in that game?

SAM HAIBY: I think they did a good job of getting us out of rhythm to start the game. We're a team that likes to push the pace and kind of get things going up and down. But they did a great job of putting on that press and slowing us down and making us unsure and hesitant on how we're going to run our offense.

Q. Amy, I think you had four turnovers in the first two minutes or so. I guess what was the musts to recover and get back into the game there?

AMY WILLIAMS: I thought we just needed to take a deep breath. I think we were playing in those first few minutes as if we knew there was a lot on the line and just kind of tight and tense and not very focused.

So the things that we really felt like needed to happen to break the pressure, we were just kind of forgetting about. We had the wrong person take the ball out of bounds one possession. We had just kind of some uncharacteristic turnovers that I think maybe just showed a little bit of kind of uptight.

I think, once we took a deep breath and kind of settled in, I thought we tried to fight back from that, but we just had too many stretches -- that 11-0 run that came, I think, after we took a lead late in the third or something -- you know, we just can't have those type of lulls against a team like Michigan State, or frankly for that matter, anybody in the Big Ten Conference or anybody that we would be playing this time of year.

Q. They're obviously going to hit some shots, but I guess defensively what were the breakdowns that allowed them to get that big run there at the fourth quarter?

AMY WILLIAMS: I think that what comes to mind the most, we felt like that we were going to need to outrebound them; we did that. We had the advantage on the offensive rebounds. We held them to only five offensive rebounds. Those were things that were really key.

But the one defensive key was to keep the ball in front of us and not let them get to the paint off penetration, and I thought there were too many breakdowns in that area. There was times where it didn't matter if it was DeeDee Hagemann or Matilda Ekh or really it could have been any of them. Joiner really hurt us, hit a couple of midrange pullups, McDaniel.

When they got to the paint, they got to the paint for paint touches, for points, but also for inside-outside kickouts, and our inability to contain that penetration really cost us, I thought. That was evident with their 38 points in the paint or 36 to our 18.