MOUNTAIN WEST WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 7, 2026

Winston Gandy

Norah Moo

Julianna La Mendola

Thomas & Mack Center

Grand Canyon Antelopes

Postgame Press Conference

Grand Canyon 75, Utah State 58

THE MODERATOR: We have student-athletes Julianna La Mendola and Norah Moo. Coach, thoughts on tonight's game?

WINSTON GANDY: Thought we had a little rocky start, but I thought the way we competed in the second half probably started -- momentum I felt like started to change once we got down, I think it was 12 or 13 and it was phenomenal.

I think we had six people in double figures, which doesn't happen a lot for us. But again, in March it doesn't have to be pretty. It's just got to be enough to get a W.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Norah, your first double-double of the year coming in the Mountain West conference. What were you seeing out there?

NORAH MOO: You know, I went out there and played basketball, and I'm glad that I could help my team win today in any way that I could do that.

Q. Julianna, when you guys started to mount that comeback after going down 13, what was the messaging in between the first and second quarter?

JULIANNA LA MENDOLA: I think it was just we faced adversity throughout this whole season. I think if you look at our record and just the way that we've played our season we've faced a lot of adversity and we've been in a place where we've been down a, like, ten.

I think we were down ten at some point. Just understanding that there's more ways to impact the game than just scoring, especially for myself. Like, I didn't have any points in the first half, but I got, like nine rebounds.

So there's definitely a way to impact the team and just everybody focusing on that and making the right basketball play. We were able to come back and play the right kind of basketball.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you for coming down. Questions for Coach.

Q. You've faced CSU twice this year. What are some of the threats you've seen from them in the past that you'll try to mitigate this time?

WINSTON GANDY: That's a good question. I think they just play really, really hard all the time. I think in both games, you know, it wasn't much of a game up in Fort Collins. I think they went on an 8-0 run to start. We had some undisciplined play to start, and they never took the foot off the gas.

I think what they do really well is any given possession, any given night somebody can beat you. Obviously they have the newcomer in Lexi, but 1 through 5 is dangerous for them.

The biggest difference for us is we've yet to play 40 minutes against them, so that's probably something I'm looking forward to, what that looks like, you know, composure-wise, poise-wise, because that's what it's going to take for us to find a way to get a W.

It's going to have to be a 40-minute game. We can't do what we did tonight, I think it was a tale of two halves, and think we're going to be victorious tomorrow.