MOUNTAIN WEST WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 11, 2024

Amanda Levens

Audrey Roden

Victoria Davis

Thomas & Mack Center

Nevada Wolf Pack

Postgame Press Conference

Colorado State 65, Nevada 54

THE MODERATOR: For Nevada we have student-athletes Audrey Roden, Victoria Davis, Coach Amanda Levens. Coach, if we can start with some thoughts on tonight's game?

AMANDA LEVENS: Just congratulations to Colorado State. They are an extremely veteran team. They have an All-American point guard. And I thought we got the best version of her today, and we were expecting that. She just, I thought, did a great job of getting into the heart of our defense and making great decisions, and her support staff really hit shots around her.

We had trouble scoring in the second half, and they were able to capitalize on that.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Coach, to start with you, I guess what was the biggest difference you think, because you were up at halftime, and you were up at halftime at Colorado State two weeks ago, and to not be able to get the shots to fall in the third quarter?

AMANDA LEVENS: Turnovers too, and unforced turnovers. I think when we're having trouble scoring, they're trying to be aggressive. They're not a team that denies or does things like that. 18 turnovers, it's just way too many.

We still had more shot attempts. We just struggled to make shots today. I think the third quarter at their place we had seven points. It was a very similar quarter where we just struggled to score.

You know, obviously today it's a really bad time for that to happen.

Q. Audrey, you had a pretty good game out there today. Just how difficult was it when you're going out there, but you just weren't getting the shots to fall from your teammates too?

AUDREY RODEN: I don't really think it's about them falling necessarily. I just don't think that we were able as a team to control the speed of the game and put each other in good positions to have wide-open or easy shots or shots that we practice a lot.

I think they did a really good job of getting us out of the flow of the game, and I think that we didn't really have a rhythm in our offense. And I think that just kind of translated to maybe not having a lot of confidence in our shooting abilities.

So I just think it's about pace and not letting the other team get us sped up and just focusing on taking the shots we know are good shots for us and that we practice a lot.

Q. Tori, what are you feeling right now? What emotions?

VICTORIA DAVIS: You know, you never really want to lose, and losing really hurts. Right now just really hurt at how the outcome is. I feel like if we had another quarter, we could have won it, but it's not going to change anything. So just really kind of hurts right now.

Q. Audrey, this season has been up and down. And as Coach said, you knew you guys were going to get their best effort today. Just kind of how do you take this season into a whole as a perspective? Because you have had so many games that have been up and down like this.

AUDREY RODEN: I think that this team has -- we've won three in a row, lost three in a row, won three in a row, lost three in a row. I think that comes with our age.

We have a lot of younger players on this team, a lot of players who haven't been to Vegas for a conference tournament and don't really understand that it's over now, and you have to win and how hard it is to come in here and win because everybody is fighting for the same thing, everybody is fighting for another day to play basketball.

You know, luckily, I have another year, and the younger kids have another year, but it's really hard when you don't, and you don't really understand the urgency of getting to play basketball again when you're not at that age. They have seven seniors.

I just think that now that we've lost this game, it almost may be good for us next year to remember this feeling and come out a little bit tougher, a little bit meaner, more aggressive, so...

Q. Tori, in this game they hit ten threes. You held them to nine threes in two games. Looking at both of those numbers, is that frustrating, to know that you were able to contain them from three twice earlier this season?

VICTORIA DAVIS: Yeah, we all knew that they were going to be a really good shooting team coming into this game, and we were really trying to make sure that they didn't get any good open looks, and unfortunately that was the case.

I think this is going to be a good learning opportunity to make sure that we don't let this happen again.

Q. Coach, just what are you -- how do you put this season in perspective as a whole, because it was pretty up and down, and to be able to get a bye here in the tournament and not play in the first round despite how things were going at points?

AMANDA LEVENS: I'm so proud of our team, to be completely -- that's exactly how I feel. We are the only team besides the 10th and 11th place team in our conference not to have an All-Conference player. To earn a first round bye and get the fourth seed outright in this tournament, I mean, wow. Right?

Talk about buying into becoming greater than the sum of your parts. Our team has been so selfless. They've gotten better. We've had a lot of things not go our way this year. We lost an All-Conference player midway through the season who was supposed to be All-Conference for us. We lost Tori for pretty much the whole preseason. And they just kept showing up and getting better.

I think if you asked anybody that knows our conference, if we would have finished fourth with all of that happening and with the roster that we have, you know, how does that happen? It happens with amazing people that really care about winning and they don't care who gets the credit.

Would have won a lot of close games because they're tough and because they defend and they figure out a way to beat a team by one point, and that's what it's all about. We've had some great wins this season. We've had games we haven't played well, and we've had trouble scoring, but we've had other games that we've beaten teams that probably have better individual talent.

As a coach, that's all you want from your team, is for them to give you everything that they have. And this group did that. They're amazing teammates. They care about each other. They work hard. They don't complain. They care about our university, and they represent it with pride.

And I hope our whole community is just so proud of them because they're out in our community. They serve our youth. They give back. They're great students, and I am proud of them. We have an amazing group.

Q. Is it just tough knowing this is where it ends after you guys did face them and you played them so close and then you beat them by more than 25 points at Lawlor a couple of months ago?

AMANDA LEVENS: McKenna Hofschild was in foul trouble in that game. That was the difference. She sat for the majority of the first half, and we were able to build the lead. But she's an All-American point guard. There's a reason that she's on the awards list that she's on.

We had trouble keeping her in front of us tonight, and we let them hit threes early. We had our hands down. You asked Tori about why were they only able to hit nine in the first two games; we did a better job of ball pressuring in the first two games.

Today any lapse we had of not pressuring the ball, they hit a three in our face. We had some young players in those situations with their hands down, and they're going to learn. Hopefully next year at this time they're a lot better because of that, even though it doesn't feel good right now.

I think we have a really good group coming back. We have a lot of positive things to build on. We're going to add some good pieces in this offseason for next year.

Some of these teams in our conference that have done really well, they have a lot of seniors. And we don't really have that veteran leadership right now. But that sense of urgency Audrey is talking about, it's always scary in March because you're fighting to play another game because you don't have any more games. I think our young players really got a first-hand look at that today.

Q. Would this team accept a bid to the WBI if it came up?

AMANDA LEVENS: We have some conversations to have. I think there will be some opportunities for this team. What I love about taking a young team to a postseason tournament is they get that taste of that, and sometimes that's a little addicting and you want more of that, and you want to play in a bigger tournament and want a chance to compete for another championship.

I think it's difficult because you're in the driver's seat for a lot of that, and we've just had some bad losses, unfortunately. I think we get four or five of those games back that to me are bad losses, and we're at 20 wins, and now it's a no-brainer.

I think it's going to be, we'll see.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much, Coach. Thank you, ladies.