BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 7, 2025

JR Payne

Jade Masogayo

Kennedy Sanders

T-Mobile Center

Colorado Buffaloes

Postgame Press Conference

TCU 69, Colorado 62

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Colorado Head Coach JR Payne, student-athletes Jade Masogayo and Kennedy Sanders. Coach?

JR PAYNE: Playing tonight was fun. Anybody that watched us play knows that we are a team that never quits and we rise to the challenge with cohesiveness, and I thought we showed that today. Proud of our effort, and disappointed, but excited to build on this as the season goes on.

Q. Coach, this was typical what you guys do. Even though they went on runs, you guys were able to battle back. How proud are you of your team to withstand a couple of those runs and make this a game for four quarters?

JR PAYNE: Yeah, so proud. We were talking about it in the hallway, I'm really not one for moral victories. But when you look at this game on paper, they have three First Team All-League kids, including the Player of the Year and All-blah-blah-blah. And it's remarkable, our will and our fight and our competitive spirit, considering we are still without two leading players.

And just really, really proud of our toughness.

Q. You can nitpick a lot of different things, but when you look at the free throws, obviously the last two days have not been great from there, you lose by seven and missed eight free throws. How much of a big deal was that today?

JR PAYNE: It's always a big deal, especially when you look at the numbers like that. But that's not the only reason we didn't win the game today. There are always things you can look at to say we could have communicated better here, been more effective here, but we continue to move on from it.

Q. Coach, down 12 points going into the fourth quarter, what was the message to the team for you to claw back into the game?

JR PAYNE: I don't remember, unless you guys remember what we talked about in the beginning of the fourth, but the message in those scenarios is usually one possession in time. We need a stop, a score, and a stop, and you're right back in it. If it's your ball, it's a score, a stop, and a score, and you're right back in it. So probably something along those lines.

Q. Coach, playing as solid as you did against the No. 8 team in the country, two wins the last couple days, if you could pitch to the Committee for Selection Sunday, what would your pitch be?

JR PAYNE: Great question. Give me the microphone. I don't know what our resume looks like. I think we have a couple of quad one wins, couple quad two wins. How many games have we been without our entire lineup, 37? January 4th.

Two weeks before the next game, we will have Frida Formann finally back. She almost played in this tournament, but we really decided two more weeks would give her exactly what she needs.

So to have your leading scorer and best three-point shooter in the history of your program back would be an incredible thing for our program. Nyamer Diew has just been out with a concussion. So she also would be back.

So it could very well be would be the first time we have been at full strength in two months. And back-to-back Sweet 16 teams, we have shown we are a program that knows how to make a deep run in March. And this team at full strength, which we will be, we will be very tough to beat.

Q. Tabitha made great contributions in the first half, didn't play much in the second half. When you have that stretch where you are trading buckets with TCU, was there any thoughts of turning to her?

JR PAYNE: Tabs played a lot of minutes and did some key things offensively and defensively, and it was tough with Sedona's size, to put her in; it's a tall task, but I thought she was great, led us in rebounding and did some really great things.

Q. Jade, you guys came out hot. You made your first seven shots. I think the team made their first eight. Just talk about the start and how big it was confidence-wise for you to get into the game?

JADE MASOGAYO: Yeah, I thought we were in sync to begin with. We had really good energy coming into the game. We were ready, we were psyched, we knew this would be a big game for us, so we were ready to take them on for real.

Q. Kennedy, you guys were down 13, you get it down to 3. Talk about that stretch and what sparked you to get back in the game.

KENNEDY SANDERS: We talked about never giving up. Obviously we scored a lot in that fourth quarter and held them. We talked about getting stops, trying to get buckets, playing hard, whatever together. But, yeah, we just went out and did that.

Q. Kennedy, good fourth quarter yesterday and today. Is there anything about big moments, clutch spots that cause you to rise to the occasion?

KENNEDY SANDERS: Um, I don't think so. I just think we were all in it together. I mean, we had a lot of people making shots for each other, being able to get each other open on the wing and that kind of thing. It was the same thing yesterday.

Q. For both of you, you guys weren't playing your best basketball down the stretch. There was a lot of injuries, this week didn't start off with a great game, but got progressively better. How big was this week confidence wise for this team to get back to playing your best basketball?

KENNEDY SANDERS: Yeah, our first game we had a lot of turnovers. We tried to forget about it; a win is a win. We talked about that a lot, so coming out and playing good against a really good team gives us a lot of confidence.

JADE MASOGAYO: I agree with Kennedy.

Q. Coach, you have talked about the resilience of this team all year. How does a hard-fought loss expand on that idea of how resilient this team is?

JR PAYNE: I think it speaks directly to that point. At any point especially the last two months with all the injuries or throughout these games where we have been down double digits and things like that, at any point we could have easily thrown in the towel, or hung our heads, or said this is too hard without Frida, or whatever, like this group just doesn't do that. So it speaks directly to it in that they are tough, they are together, they never quit, they never wilt, and that's allowed us to win these games down the stretch.

Q. Jade, while it's not quite over with postseason tournament yet to come, All Big 12 Honorable Mention. What has this season meant to you?

JADE MASOGAYO: Having a good time playing at Colorado. It's just been really great having all these teammates are just very supportive and just always got your back and stuff like that, and coaches as well. It's just been a great experience for me so far and ready for postseason and ready to continue on.

Q. Kindyll was your three-point threat today. Is that something you guys saw, or was that really just her being aggressive and taking those shots?

JR PAYNE: If you look at the stats, she is shooting the ball really well. It's not just today, obviously today, yes, but actually the last three or four games she shot it really well. So it's awesome to see her confidence grow and of course everybody is always confident in her, so I thought that was great on both sides.

Q. You guys only attempted nine three-pointers, which is low for you guys, is that because you weren't allowed to get shots off from beyond the arc?

JR PAYNE: I actually think we had looks that we did not take from three that we maybe should have, but it's a good percentage to go 5 or 9, so obviously they were good shots when we took 'em and confident shots. They're pretty long on the perimeter, so maybe we felt like we weren't open but, yeah, we shot the ball well.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you so much.