MOUNTAIN WEST WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 8, 2026

Mike Bradybury

Destinee Hooks

Alyssa Hargrove

Thomas & Mack Center

New Mexico Lobos

Postgame Press Conference

Boise State 62, New Mexico 61

THE MODERATOR: For New Mexico we have student-athletes Destinee Hooks, Alyssa Hargrove, Coach Mike Bradbury. Coach, let's get your thoughts on today's game.

MIKE BRADBURY: Well, first, I'll start with I couldn't be more proud of a team than this one, especially tonight. We showed some character, and this is something that we've been working on all year.

This team has grown so much with their maturity and how they handle adversity and how they approach things now. You know, a lot of people could have folded. In the first half Boise threw some big punches at us and we couldn't make a shot. Give them credit for that; they did a good job.

We continued to fight and fight and fight and claw our way back into the game and get a lead there late. So I think, you know, the most thing is how proud I am of the fight that we showed tonight.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Start with you, Destinee. First half obviously like he said, you guys didn't have many things going your way. What did you guys do internally to kind of get that turned around in the second half?

DESTINEE HOOKS: We just talked about staying together. I think, you know, the best of our team is when we stay together, we make the right moves and we make the right plays and everyone plays to the best of their ability and everyone does what they can do best.

We just tried to get back to that, tried to get the ball moving more, open up some lanes, yeah.

Q. Alyssa, it seemed like you guys, even though, like he said, you couldn't make a shot in the first half, the confidence didn't really waver. You kind of came out and played really well in the second half. What do you think changed?

ALYSSA HARGROVE: Yeah, I think we went into the locker room knowing that our shots weren't falling, but we need to do take good shots, continue doing what we were doing, and we would end up getting good shots to fall and just keep playing like how we know we can play and stick together. Then we'd get good shots and hopefully make it.

Q. Destinee, one of your better games of the season today. That last shot, did you feel like you had it?

DESTINEE HOOKS: Yeah, I did. I felt like I had it, but it came up short, so it's unfortunate.

Q. Last, I'll bounce to both of you guys. What about Boise State makes them difficult to play? You guys had quite a battle with them today.

ALYSSA HARGROVE: Yeah, I think it starts with their coaching. He's a good coach, so I think they run through him. Then they have a good point guard who keeps them composed and gets them -- tries to get them a good shot all the time. They have great shooters and good post players. They're an overall really good team that can play.

THE MODERATOR: We'll dismiss the student-athletes. Thank you, ladies. Questions for Coach.

Q. First, Mike, if you could talk real quick about the game Destinee had today? For a lot of that game you didn't have a lot else going on offense. She kind of kept you in it. What was so good about her today?

MIKE BRADBURY: I thought she played well. I thought she played within herself. She was poised. She took good shots, played strong with the ball, especially around the rim.

You know, she didn't turn the ball over. Any time that you can -- you know, that she can have a game where she doesn't turn it over, when her usage rate was as high as it was today, you know, that was impressive.

Q. The last play, I mean, obviously they had a foul to give, and they gave it. Did you get what you were looking for?

MIKE BRADBURY: Yeah, the one from the side, the biggest thing -- we knew they were going to take the foul -- was get it below the free-throw line. So then we could take the ball out underneath. We still had a timeout, so we were able to get both of those things in our favor. We got a point-blank one-footer.

To Destinee's credit, she took it up strong and played through some contact there. Just came up a little short.

Q. I guess, last do you know if there's a postseason possibility for this team?

MIKE BRADBURY: It's something that I'm going to fight for.