AMERICAN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 13, 2026

Jason Burton

Megan Nestor

Legacy Arena At The BJCC

North Texas Mean Green

Postgame Press Conference

Rice 71, North Texas 67

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Jason Burton and Megan Nestor. Coach, let's start with comments from you.

JASON BURTON: Yeah, incredibly proud of our team. I don't have a lot of voice, so. We came to Birmingham just a different team. I thought we had championship culture out here. The preparation, the behind-the-scenes work. The grittiness, the toughness we showed.

This game today, after three games, it boiled down to just toughness on the boards. The game was won really off of one category, and it was offensive rebounds and the second-chance points.

And hats off to Hailey Adams for what she did on the boards today. She was tremendous. Eight offensive rebounds and a lot of those led to points. 23 points off of second-chance shots right there is a huge difference in the game. I'm incredibly proud of our young women for how they played this year, how they battled, how they came together.

I do want to say this, man, the woman to my right, man, Megan Nestor is incredible. What she did this year is purely -- it's remarkable, man. For somebody to be playing basketball less than four years and to do what she did, I don't think she garnered the respect from officials that she deserved.

The reason why she didn't have some of the rebounding games she's had all year is because she consistently gets pushed and displaced and fouled on rebounds. You have to. You have to do that with her because she's a monster on the boards.

She's relentless, man. And I'm so proud of you. So proud of you for what you did this year. It's truly heart and determination to produce the way you've produced in such a short amount of time and what you have meant to your country and to your community and to your family and to North Texas and what should be to the American Conference, I don't know that we'll see another year like that from somebody in a long time. Tremendous player, man.

But this team showed heart and I loved coaching this team this year. We showed a lot of resiliency and toughness. AP get going down and coming back and just battling. Last night's game was a hard-fought game ending with a loot of fouls and a lot of just bodies hitting the floor.

I thought we came and we logged a lot of minutes back and battled from start to finish. We could have turned it in when they stretched the lead out and we battled back. Just want to say how proud I am of this team.

Q. Megan, you guys were down 13 early in the fourth quarter. What brought you guys back?

MEGAN NESTOR: Just playing defense and staying confident in what we know how to do.

Q. Coach, Rice has been there, been in championship games. Do you think that experience for them really helped pay off down the stretch there?

JASON BURTON: I do. This Rice team has been tremendous all year. Coach Edmonds has done a tremendous job with this program since I have been in the conference. They are always playing high-level basketball in March.

But the thing that's been unique about Rice is just their ability to retain players, and so you retain your culture. This is not a product of something that happened overnight. It's the product of something that's happened over some years and this team is playing together.

They're playing really great basketball. They won't beat themselves. You have to go and beat them. Hats off to Rice and how they represent the American Conference this year.

Q. Obviously you guys potentially have some secondary tournament opportunities. Is that something you guys would be interested in going into postseason?

JASON BURTON: We'll play in the WBIT if we get the invite. Our non-conference schedule we challenge ourselves playing P4s and playing a tough non-con schedule, but if you look at how we ended the year, we're playing our best basketball.

Two of our losses late in the year are to Rice who is an NCAA Tournament team, but outside of that, the way we have been scoring the ball, the way we have been playing the last ten games is tremendous and this team can make some noise in the WBIT.

Q. On a 15-2 run early, what did you see that gave them that separation there?

JASON BURTON: Replacing defense, rebounding. We kept them off the glass. In the first quarter, they scored nine points off second-chance points. In the second quarter we kept them off the glass and they didn't score any second-chance points.

That was the difference in the game. Third quarter they went back to doing it; Didn't do a great job of boxing out. They hit so many threes off offensive rebounds. It hurts. I thought we played really good defense on the front end of that, but every time they got offensive rebound, they capitalized, so...

Q. You talk about resilience, talk about that fourth quarter. You outscored them in the fourth quarter and held them to 3-17 shooting when the game could have gotten out of hand. The resilience, the pride that your team played with.

JASON BURTON: Tough group, man. They were determined, man. Again, I say that... as a coach, this time of year you don't want to be coaching. You want your players coaching. You want your players doing the talking and halftime and before the game and in time-outs I'm going in and they're talking.

They're in there saying the right stuff and their minds are locked in on the right things. That's a game that could have went either way. One or two possessions different and we're winning the game. You're only able to do that if you're able to play high-level basketball and play with 1^ tough ^ you have toness and grit and Rice has been doing that.

You had two really, really tough teams right there, two gritty teams that -- the we played that fourth quarter, 19-12, give us a couple more minutes I think we won the game. We didn't have the time tonight.

Q. Talk about the fourth quarter and the fight that you and your teammates showed.

MEGAN NESTOR: Yeah, they're a tough team. We were prepared for this moment and all the things we go through in practice and preseason prepared us for this moment. We're a really tough team, and that's what we're going to come out and do every time.