Oklahoma State University Athletics
OSU vs. Iowa State Postgame Quotes
February 26, 2014 | Cowgirl Basketball
Feb. 26, 2014
OSU Head Coach Jim Littell
Opening Statement
"Congratulations to Iowa State. I thought they played with a great desire and a sense of urgency. They're fighting for an NCAA tournament berth and probably got it tonight with their eighth win. They played with a bigger sense of urgency than we did. We got away from guarding like we did earlier in the year. We got beat in about every phase of the game. We went into the game with the idea of giving up 20 3-point attempts, and we gave up 36. We held them to three 3-pointers on their home court at Iowa State in January, and tonight they hit 15. I know they made some late in the game when we were scrambling and trying to press, but we got beat off the dribble, we got beat on the 3-pointers, we got beat in about every phase of the game that you can. In the first half, we didn't checkout and they get free offensive boards and kick it to No. 3 every time. I believe they scored nine points off of putbacks because we didn't block out. I thought we showed great energy getting back in the game. I don't know what the biggest lead was - 18. Then we cut it to six and had three horrific mistakes where we allow somebody to just drive in for a layup, and then they shoot a ball and we don't block out, and they have somebody fly in and get a putback on the left box, and there was one other thing that happened, and all of a sudden it goes from six to 14 before you know what's going on. Then you're out of the game."
On if the three-pointers came from lack of defensive execution or Iowa State doing something to get people open
"It was execution on their part and a lack of following the gameplan on our part. We were supposed to run some kids off of threes and not leave them at all. Brynn Williamson was one of those, and you look up and she's got 5-9 from three. Same thing with (Jadda) Buckley. We know who can shoot, and the team's that have beaten them, including us, have run them off the three-point shots. That's what we did, and that's what a lot of teams got to doing when they went on a little bit of a skid there. We followed that the first time, we didn't this time. A big part of it is, when you get beat off of the dribble and you have to go help, then you leave shooters open. We knew we had to contain them off of the dribble, and we didn't do a very good job of doing that."
On Donohoe struggling with foul trouble in first half
"I don't know what she scored the first half. Did she score? She needs to be on the floor and be productive offensively. I don't know how productive she had been before the two fouls. As an individual, you can't play a half against a team like that and then feel good about, 'OK I played well in the second half.' It just doesn't work against a team like this. Give them credit, they made shots, they're good 3-point shooters, they're well coached, but when you give up 52 points in the first half and 72 percent the second half, those numbers don't produce a win."
On using a press
"It was an emergency. We hadn't worked on it at all. What it did for a while is, it got them to speed up and they weren't in that control rhythm that they were all the half. It worked for a while and then you look up and they have someone in the corner making threes off of it. Those are daggers when you get it. Again I say, we cut it to six and have about three mistakes defensively and a turnover at this other end, and then you look up and you're down 14. When you cut it to six, you needed to go ahead and take the lead and be solid on some things. We weren't on that. We were in a scramble-gamble mode right then, and that happens sometimes."
Guard Tiffany Bias
On defending from the three-point range
“They shot the ball well. We just didn't defend well. We just weren't getting the picks and they were playing peek-a-boo behind the screens where we just weren't getting out on them. We didn't follow their shots as well as we should have.”
On what Iowa State did differently
“They just shot the ball really well. I think they were 70 percent. We didn't do anything different. Our defense was just lacking and our effort was lacking. That was the outcome when you leave shooters open like that.”
On their defense against her field goals
“I think they were just switching out on everything. I think I wasn't attacking as much as I needed to so I could get the penetrated pitch from my teammates. I think that's what their game plan was, to switch out on me and make sure I couldn't turn the corner on them.”
Guard Brittney Martin
On her scoring stretch in the first half
“We needed points and you can't wait for other people to do it. I was hitting shots so I just tried to keep attacking. I kept working.”
On the differences in the halves
“I couldn't make as many shots, I guess. I don't know what happened. Sometimes you're on and sometimes you're not. You have to keep shooting.”
On pressing them toward the end of the game
“It's tough. We came back for a little stretch. After that, I think we just kept on trying to do the best we could. We could never give up but we just had to keep doing what we could.”
Head Coach Bill Fennelly
Opening statement
"Amazing effort by our team. We've been sitting on the bubble a lot, and I thought we came down here and played pretty well. I think we played pretty well in the second half against Texas at home, and we really challenged our kids to bring that on the road. We hadn't beat a top 20 team, and I thought we played great. We shot the ball great. That's been our Achilles heel from time to time this year. They're a very hard team to guard, but I thought we did a really good job of containing them in the first half. In the second half, it was more of a 'you score, we score' kind of thing, but we couldn't have played much better against that kind of pressure defense. When we had open looks, we made them. The press hurt us at times, but when we beat it, the court opened up for us at times, and we got some transition three's. I think we tried to play to not lose the game instead of playing to win the game there for about four minutes. For our team to be up 11, get up by 18, have them come roaring back and then withstand that was good. I thought Nikki handling the ball was really good. I'm very proud of our team."
On if he expected so many three's to be open tonight
"They played extremely great defense against the three at our place. I think we were 3-17. I think, with the transition three's, which added up a little bit, we did a much better job of tonight than we did at home. They were switching a lot of ball screens where our guards would attack the basket and try to beat their big guy, not necessarily to score, but to open the court. We did a pretty good job of that compared to where we've been in the past. Nikki and Jadda [Buckley] can attack you off the bounce, and I think they did that real well. It's like with anything else, when the ball's going on, you want it a little bit more and you're getting yourself open a little bit more. To make 15 three's against a good defensive team is something we haven't gotten a lot of, but when the ball's going in the basket, that's the way we have to play. We don't have a lot of different weapons. We shoot the three, we want to get to the free throw line, we want to throw the ball to big number five, and if those things aren't working, we lose games. That's how Oklahoma State beat us at home, and we were very fortunate that we made the shots we had to make tonight."
On the defensive gameplan against Tiffany Bias
"She's one of the best guards in this league, and she's done a lot of great things against us. We really just tried to stay in front of her. We were willing to almost gap her too much. The other thing is, when we were making shots, they were taking the ball to the net, so she's not as open where she's really effective. If you make a shot, they take it out and you can get your defense going. We just kept telling ourselves to guard the front of her jersey, not the back. When we played here last year, we were chasing her the whole night and never guarded her. We were trying to play a game of tag and never caught her. Tonight, I thought we were much smarter at trying to gap her a little bit. When you do that, you live and die with it, but luckily we did a pretty good job of that and not committing silly fouls tonight. We did commit a few. She ducks you so much and she's so good with the ball. Overall, I don't think we could have defended her much better. That's part of the reason why we won the game."
Iowa State guard Nikki Moody
On finishing a point shy of a triple-double
"I just felt like my teammates stepped up and took over the scoring load the whole game. I felt like I had to keep getting them the ball and keep rebounding."
On Oklahoma State's press in the second half
"I think we handled it pretty well. I think we had some lapses, but I think we did a pretty good job of it overall.
On the offensive gameplan coming into the game
"It was mainly just to execute, you know, just to run our plays and get our shots that we can knock down. [OSU] gambles a lot on defense, so we just tried our best to rotate the ball and hit the open person. We just happened to find a lot of open shots, and a lot of them were three's."
