MOUNTAIN WEST WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 7, 2026

Gordy Presnell

Natalie Pasco

Libby Hutton

Thomas & Mack Center

Boise State Broncos

Postgame Press Conference

Boise State 68, San Jose State 51

THE MODERATOR: We have student-athletes Libby Hutton and Natalie Pasco. Coach Gordy Presnell, we'll get some thoughts from you.

GORDY PRESNELL: Just happy that we won, and obviously it was a normal start for the first tournament game. I know San Jose State, he's going to do a great job there, and they're going to get theirselves going.

So congratulations to them. They fought really hard.

I thought our kids fought really hard. I thought we were pretty jittery. Our freshmen were especially jittery, except for Morgan.

Then I thought the first five minutes of the third quarter we established a little bit more and got some things done.

I thought these two were terrific. I think together they had 35 points and 24 rebounds. That's pretty good. You know, just throwing it out there, I don't know how either one of them didn't make at least Honorable Mention All-Conference.

Lib is just an amazing defender. She didn't get on the defensive team, and she can guard all five spots. She's athletic enough to do that. Ranked really, really high in the defensive ratings. Hopefully we can use this and go into a really, really tough battle tomorrow.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Libby, double-double today. Season high rebounds for you. What do you attribute that to?

LIBBY HUTTON: I would say my teammates really had good energy today I think that maybe me realize the tournament is the most important part of our season, and I think they came out with a lot of desperation today, and I think that showed on the stat sheet, and I think that's what our whole team needs to continue to bring throughout this tournament.

Q. Natalie, obviously a hot start for you. Leading your team scoring in the first half. What were you seeing out of the gate?

NATALIE PASCO: I think each game is so important in the tournament. Today we just wanted to come out strong, and I think my teammates did a good job setting screens, pushing the ball, just getting me those open looks.

We were kind of just trying to swing the ball and find what was open and continue on what was working for us.

Q. You guys split the season with New Mexico in the regular season. One at your place, lost at their place. What gives you the confidence to keep moving on tomorrow?

GORDY PRESNELL: I think we have a great group of kids that will be ready to compete, and they're very, very well put together. They have everything. They're athletic. They can shoot it. They got great, great size in the post. They're going to press us a lot.

So we tried to sub our guards as much as we could today to hopefully get some rest, because they're going to come after us tomorrow.

We had a great game at our place, and then at their place it was also a really good game. We fell real behind, and then we were up with about six minutes to go, and then they took over.

It should be a really great battle against two pretty good teams, and we'll see what happens.

Q. Natalie, you played a lot of times down here in Las Vegas. What does it mean to be back here and an opportunity to still define the season in the way that you guys want to?

NATALIE PASCO: Yeah, it's great to be back. This will be my fourth year. It's crazy to think about, but I think we just have to take each day one at a time and we'll be ready to go tomorrow. It's going to be a pretty physical game, but we're excited for it.

Q. Libby, it's been an emotional couple of weeks with you guys celebrating Senior Night and a cool class of seniors, but how bad do you want this one for them and save your best basketball for these next few days?

LIBBY HUTTON: Yeah, I think our whole season trajectory has been trending upwards, and I think that's really important for us to realize. I think that, you know, it has been definitely emotional knowing that next year is going to be very different, but it also just fuels a lot of us underclassmen a lot more because we want to go out on a good note for the seniors and really make them proud, and I think we have a really good chance to do that.

Q. You guys play New Mexico tomorrow. You guys had a really good outing against them a few weeks ago. What did you take from that game?

LIBBY HUTTON: Yeah, I think that our defense in that second game was incredible. I think the stat was the lowest, like third lowest score in our program history. I think that's going to be a really important thing that we bring in again in tomorrow's game.

At the end of the day it's just going to be about who wants it more. You know, post-season tournament, it's really -- we have to bring our energy, we have to bring every single play that we have. We have to bring all of that determination, and I think it's going to be a really good game.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies. Questions for Coach.

Q. Coach, you guys are pretty tight on the first half up until the last couple of minutes where you started to build a lead and then extend on that in the second half. What was the message in the locker room?

GORDY PRESNELL: You're talking about the first five minutes of the third? In football I think they call it the middle eight. The first five minutes are really important.

And also, we've had a great season. This is our 24th win. Then we were playing for second the other night and just got our doors blown off.

I thought we'd be tight, but maybe we were a little tighter than I thought. I thought we loosened up and really started to compete.

The only message we sent at halftime was keep your poise and make sure -- I want to see visual encouragement and compete. That's kind of what we did. They kind of got rolling.

Natalie got it rolling. You have to guard her or she's going to make it. And then Libby took advantage of that and then they're not going to help. It was a good win today, but hopefully we can take it into tomorrow and maybe be looser and just kind of let it fly and see what happens.