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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT


March 7, 2014


Kim Barnes Arico

Madison Ristovski

Siera Thompson


INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

MICHIGAN STATE – 61
MICHIGAN - 58


COACH BARNES ARICO:  I thought it was a great basketball game.  I'm sorry to be on the short end of the stick.  I thought we really played well as a team and they did a tremendous job of offensive rebounding and giving themselves second‑chance opportunities and that's where I thought they really beat us.  But at the end of the day it was a great game and I'm sorry we came out on the bad side.

Q.  Siera, could you talk about that last possession, please?
SIERA THOMPSON:  On the last possession, we were looking for Madison for three.  And they did a good job on defense of denying her and denying everyone else and switching out on me on screens.

Q.  Madison, can you talk about your second half, especially in the threes?
MADISON RISTOVSKI:  I just noticed that in the first half every time that Cyesha or Val were down low that the defense would collapse on them.  So I just kind of told them to look to kick it out and I would try to move to an open spot.  So we kind of talked about it and I was pretty confident going into the second half to get those shots.

Q.  The forwards had, you know, the three of them had some foul trouble this game.  How does your role change when Nicole is out and when at various points midway through the second half you have three forwards with three fouls?
SIERA THOMPSON:  We just have to step up when other players are down.  And I think we did that very well offense and defense.  So that's what we tried to do.
MADISON RISTOVSKI:  We just have to make sure that we're always letting them know that they're in foul trouble, to make sure they stay in the game.  They're a big asset when that happens.  When that happens us guards have to help them with their people that they're guarding.

Q.  Coach, toward the end of the first half and toward the second half, they had ‑‑ they basically made runs that you guys had played yesterday or last night and you played again tonight.  Was there any fatigue at all or was it just a breakdown in the defense or something?
COACH BARNES ARICO:  I thought at the end of the first half when they made that run it was because Cyesha Goree was on the bench and they continued to play with two bigs on offense, which made us not really be able to guard them.  So we had to go to zone and they really took advantage of our zone and they went inside at the end of the first half.  And I thought that was really critical.  I thought the start of the second half Cyesha was back in but we were playing tight.  And we just needed to get back to playing how we played in the first half.  I think after we called the timeout they relaxed a little bit and they played more confident.  I think when they did make those runs it was probably due to some of our key players being out with foul trouble.

Q.  If you could tell us about the decision to go to look for Madison on the last play.  You have Siera out there, two great three‑point shooters, just what the thought process was?
COACH BARNES ARICO:  Maddy was hot.  We always say let's try to go to the hot hand.  Maddy was making shots.  She missed a couple late, one I don't think she was ready on the catch.  The other one before the last play she had an open look.  And she missed that one.  But you know, we just try to get the ball to the hot hand and she was playing really well.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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