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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2010Jim FosterJantel LavenderSamantha PrahalisINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA Ohio State – 82 THE MODERATOR: All right. Coach Foster will go first, and then we'll have questions for the student-athletes. Q. Jantel, I know you've been in a lot of big games, but it seemed like a tug-of-war with Wisconsin today. Alyssa was hotter than hot, and yet both of you were hot. Can you talk about the back and forth and the ebb and flow of your emotions in a game like that? JANTEL LAVENDER: I think Wisconsin came out to play extremely hard. They were executing extremely well in the first half. Alyssa was hot, as you said. We had to figure out a way to stop that down the stretch. And I think once we switched up what we were doing defensively, that kind of slowed down as we got one-minute mark. And we pulled through. Q. What did you change up defensively? SAMANTHA PRAHALIS: We just did a couple of things on the screen, setting a lot of screens. And the guards wasn't quite getting there in time, and just they drove us a lot off the dribble. So we wanted to take -- stay down on them and get a little more help off the screens a little bit. But in the end we got the stops we needed and came out with the win. Q. Jantel, could you talk about just you sat out some time in the first half with the foul trouble, and I think you (indiscernible) 3 of 9. Could you talk about what you were able to get going, especially in the second half? JANTEL LAVENDER: I was trying to slow down and get lower on my post moves. And I think Wisconsin plays extremely hard and they're going to do extremely well in the NCAA tournament. They were just playing extremely hard. And I think the fact that I wasn't getting low, I just had to make some adjustments. I talked to Coach Foster, just get lower in the post. And it started working to our advantage in the second half and I started getting fouls. Q. Sam, can you speak to the emotion of the team over the last like seven or eight minutes of this game, and has it been this high in a game this year? SAMANTHA PRAHALIS: We just needed to get stopped. Every time we met in the huddle we gotta get stops. It must have been said a thousand times tonight. They played great. They played great on offense. They drove us. Hitting shots. Wisconsin played really good. So we really just needed to grind it out. Q. Jantel, what does it say for you guys that you were able to grind it out the way you ground it out? JANTEL LAVENDER: I think it just shows the greatness that our team has and the potential that we have to be an extremely great team. We pulled through the game. And I think the fact we dug deep as a team shows our poise and shows how tough our team is. And I'm happy we won this game because Wisconsin, like she said, played an extremely great game. Q. How nice is it to have a third option with Tayler kind of continually going to the rim and drawing fouls, somebody that can handle the ball and do things for you? SAMANTHA PRAHALIS: Tayler does great. She does a great job (indiscernible) kick. She draws contact really well. I think she always gives energy, and I think tonight I think everything she did she really stepped up for us. Q. At what point, Sam, did you guys realize you had to attack the basket and get the contact you were getting? SAMANTHA PRAHALIS: Taylor did a great job of that the whole game. I thought she did a great job of that and nailing her foul shots. For me I think it was in the second half when I realized they were kind of staying with me. So I just had to take it and to see what that brought me and it brought some fouls. Q. Jantel, I know Ohio State has had the bull's eye on and you take everybody's best shot. But there's something about the tournament, wouldn't you agree, that things seemed to go up a little more? People seem to play a little higher and they demand more of you, do you feel that coming into a game like this? JANTEL LAVENDER: Most definitely. I think this tournament buys you an automatic bid in the NCAA tournament. It just brings out the best in all players. And I think Wisconsin has been a good team this whole year even in conference play. And we just knew they were going to bring their A game. Everybody we played. Iowa tomorrow we know everybody is going to play extremely hard and we have to come in and match the intensity. Q. Right before the game started, you bring them together, you say something, your face couldn't be more serious. I'm wondering if you would let us know what that was? JANTEL LAVENDER: I emphasized we have to get stops. We have to come out and match intensity because we know Alyssa Karel and Rae Lin, she's a senior. She doesn't want to go home they're going to play extremely hard and we have to match the intensity and get stops and play defense, because when we played at Wisconsin I think we got beat off the dribble a lot. We just wanted to change that. I think that was the point that needed to be made at the beginning of the game. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies. Questions for Coach. Q. Nothing unexpected, but to have a 1-2 punch like that, what does it mean when they're both clicking offensively? COACH FOSTER: Makes it a hard team to guard. I think one of the things that this team has done all season long, we really get to the foul line. We've taken a huge number of -- we've made a huge number more foul shots than our opponents have attempted. And it's a very, very significant number. It's always something that we strive for. And add Tayler to the mix. But the ability to take the ball to the basket, get fouled. To be strong in the post. Get fouled. It's something that we preach and we have a bunch of players who are able to do that. Q. I asked Sammy about the emotion on the floor. Does this team have a lot of that this year more so than maybe some of your former teams have had? COACH FOSTER: Not even close. Yeah, a lot more. Yeah, a lot more passion. A lot more fire. A lot more juice. A lot more fun. We'll get both. Q. And, again, you can feel that yourself. So are you always thinking the comeback is coming? COACH FOSTER: If you play hard and get stops, you're going to win games and make foul shots. I think it's an ingredient or combination of ingredients we've had all along this year. When we reverse the ball and move the ball. And sometimes we guard ourselves. Sometimes we quick shoot. We'll take any transition baskets but tonight they were getting back. And I've said before what I really like about this Wisconsin team and this program is the fact that they are willing to get after it and go up and down the floor and it's just a much more entertaining style of basketball. And a lot of teams in this league are playing it at the moment. It's getting up and down. And it seems to be what the rest of the world is doing. And I'm glad to see that we have a dance partner. Guess what, we have another one tomorrow night. Q. How this thing turned at the end, Alyssa just didn't get good looks at least -- COACH FOSTER: We started trapping the screen and roll pretty hard. And rotating defensively pretty hard. In the first half, they were beating us off the dribble. And we just -- I think it became more personal. And we stopped reaching. We have some pretty quick feet. But when you start to reach for the ball and trying to make plays, at this stage of the season, you know, a good solid team like that, the second you reach, it's over. They're just going by you. If there's one thing kids know how to do today is to attack the basket. Put the ball on the floor. Q. Could you talk about the Iowa game? I believe you guys beat them in a pretty close matchup in the regular season. Talk about what you're expecting tomorrow. COACH FOSTER: We won't play zone. They move it and shoot it too well. We've got to make them earn their points, and we can't wait until halftime tomorrow. Q. Seemed like again Brittany had some good minutes for you without scoring. Was she the one on Karel towards the end of the game, too? COACH FOSTER: Actually, I think Taylor might have been there a fair amount, Shavelle was there. And there were occasions when Brittany switched onto her. Yeah. But she was much better defensively in the second half. And I think it's a valid observation. It's nice to see her when she's not making shots come up with some plays. She also got a key rebound and went to the foul line because she went to the glass. Q. Coach, did this team find something about winning both titles last year that it really liked? COACH FOSTER: That's a question for tomorrow. I can't answer it right now. Q. Jim, just a comment. With a physical game like you said it was up and down. There was only a total of 14 turnovers in the game. What does that speak to? COACH FOSTER: That means we didn't pass much. When you're taking it to the basket as aggressively as both teams were, there's not as much passing. And when you have kids that can finish and kids that have to be fouled to stop them getting to the basket, a lot of times that turns into a low-turnover game. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. End of FastScripts |
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