March 10, 2015
Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery
LAS VEGAS -
THE MODERATOR: We're joined by San Diego State.
Coach, some comments on today's game.
COACH TERRY: Tough one for us. I want to credit New Mexico because they played a tough game. They're a hard team to play because not only are they athletic, they have great shooters, they play extremely hard for 40 minutes. It's 40 minutes of hellacious basketball. They're a hard matchup because they play so hard.
I was really proud of our kids because I felt that they matched their intensity. It wasn't a pretty game I think on either side of the ball. But the effort, intensity was really fun to watch.
I hate for us to have to end the way we did because we put ourselves in a great position to win this game with our defense. These kids have been working extremely hard, have battled through injuries, had battled through adversity.
I just hate for us to lose, but proud of the season we've been able to put together. I thought we got better as the season went on. We need a couple more weeks, then we'd really be playing our best basketball.
Our senior group with Erimma, Desi and K.J. are going to be missed. They've put a lot into this program. I thought they played their hearts out tonight.
THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student athletes.
Q. In terms of this being a game of runs, how New Mexico went on one to close the first half, you coming out in the second, back and forth. What sort of things can coach tell the team at halftime for the way you came out?
DESI CULBERSON: If you've watched us all year, we normally start the second half off kind of slow. I think we made a specific effort to not start off as slow as we normally do. We wanted to punch them in the mouth first, as we did. I think we could have punched them a little harder. We wanted to start off faster than we normally have. I think we were successful in that.
Ahjalee Harvey: Obviously with a team like this, they're a great team, they have a great coach. We knew that it was going to be close. With the runs they had, there were crucial mistakes we made with turnovers and rebounding.
I think with those mistakes, if we were to eliminate them, it would definitely be a different outcome.
Q. Can you touch on the last 42 seconds. What was the game plan? What went wrong?
DESI CULBERSON: It couldn't play out any more perfect. We got a layup as a buzzer beater. That's basketball at its finest there. We just got to convert and make it.
Ahjalee Harvey: To piggyback on that, I think we executed pretty well, being able to create off of our screens, dishing it out to open players, like Desi just said. We were just short of a basket.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies.
We'll continue with questions for Coach Terry.
Q. In your opening statement, a tough way to lose. What do you tell your players in the locker room after this?
COACH TERRY: I told them that I was proud of the fight. I told them in the beginning that we need to have less quit in us today. They really put out a great effort.
Again, we made mistakes. I mean, both teams did, to be honest. We gave ourselves a chance to win at the end against a very good team. That's all that we were playing for. We knew it was going to be a dogfight. We just missed that last shot.
I hate it for them. I do. I hate it for them. We've been in a situation where we've had to struggle and fight this year. We had a very tough non conference schedule. This league is getting better and better. Every night you have to bring your best effort.
Again, I thought we grew as a team over this season as the season progressed. We're playing good basketball right now. I hope this carries over to next season.
Q. At the end of the first half you managed to cut it back a little bit, then punched them in the mouth at the start of the second half, as Desi said. Talk about the first series, how you were able to come back.
COACH TERRY: We weren't happy going into the locker room. We felt like we gave them too many transition buckets. That's what they do. We knew that. They did a great job running on us. I thought they outplayed us in the first half, just played harder than we did.
We had a long conversation about the effort it was going to take for us to get back in this game and win this game. Like Desi said, we have a tendency to start slow. They made a concerted effort to come out fast. We held them to 22 points in the second half, eliminated those transition points. That gave us a chance to cut into those leads and eventually gave us a chance to win.
I think the key was really the offensive rebounding. They did a great job on the glass in the second half, gave themselves second and third opportunities to score, which put a lot of pressure on our defense.
We would play pretty good defense for 25 seconds, they get the O board, then we have to guard again. That's the type of coach Yvonne is. They play tough. They're relentless on the boards. That's what's gotten them the success they've had this year.
THE MODERATOR: We are joined by New Mexico.
Coach, just some thoughts on tonight's game.
COACH SANCHEZ: First, I want to congratulate San Diego State on a terrific year. I have a lot of respect for Stacie Terry, I think she does things the right way.
I credit them. They took us out of a lot of things we tried to do. That's a very good basketball team. That's a very good coaching staff.
What a great game for the fans. This is what tournament time is all about. Our fans were terrific. I give them a lot of credit for creating an atmosphere like the Pit. We were fortunate. We were fortunate to come away with that.
Now it's time to see what's next.
THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student athletes.
Q. A lot closer game than the two regular season games. What was the difference they did to make this one closer?
ANTIESHA BROWN: I mean, it's called March Madness for a reason. You can't look back on what you've done in January or February. You know, it's a completely different season. Every team starts out 0 0. I just think we can't take anything for granted. We can't look back on what we've done a month ago and what they've done a month ago. We're both two completely different teams.
I think we came into the game with that mindset knowing we could possibly face anything, so...
BREA MITCHELL: Coach told us before the game it was going to be a grind, there are no blow outs when it's tournament time. We knew it was going to be a grind.
Q. You had a hard time last season closing out these close games. You rectified that. What is different about closing out games?
ANTIESHA BROWN: We've grown up. We've worked on things. We've taken every lesson that we possibly could from last year.
Our freshmen got an amazing chance to go to Italy with us, kind of learn the pace of the college game. I think that is what helped us out, building that team chemistry, not looking down on each other or any of our opponents. We stick together, do what we have to do, get stops on defense, execute on offense, close out games.
We have to know time, score, situations, but we can't panic.
Q. Seemed to be a game of runs. What were you told at halftime to possibly prepare for coming out the gates?
BREA MITCHELL: Halftime we just wanted to focus on defense and rebounding, just keeping the energy high. Runs are going to go back and forth.
The team that rebounds and plays the best defense and works the hardest usually comes out with the win.
ANTIESHA BROWN: San Diego State, they're a long, athletic team. We know this.
They got a lot of drives to the basket, more than what we wanted, in the first half. We had to contain the drives. They were getting a lot of points in the paint. Most of them were layups.
Whenever we tried to kind of slow them down a little bit on that, it kind of worked in our favor. Other than that, we had to execute our end, rebound, run the floor, push it if they were getting a little tired and fatigued, because they have one game over us. You know, just do what we can.
Q. Seemed to be a physical game. You got 12 second chance points to one for them. Do you feel from a physical standpoint, were you expecting it to be that physical, and how did you do in the physical game?
ANTIESHA BROWN: We really didn't know what to expect. Like I said, it's March. Our posts did a fantastic job of staying mentally in the game and physically in the game. They got beat up a lot. San Diego State posts, those are some big girls. They're very strong, they're very athletic. Our posts took a lot of big hits for us. That's a sacrifice we make for each other. We're willing to run through a wall for each other and I think the posts took a big load off of that.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies.
We'll continue with questions for Coach Sanchez.
Q. Would you expect anything less than a tight game?
COACH SANCHEZ: I told them at the end of the game, I said, You guys have done this all year long. We've won close games. We grew up a little bit. I grew up a little bit.
It's a fun and a very, very special group. I told them that the last timeout, there were 14 seconds left, 14.3, I said, You guys have won games like this all year long. You can't expect anything less. Get out there with confidence, scramble around, do what you need to do, it will go your way.
We were very fortunate. It's a very good San Diego State team we beat.
Q. Can you talk a little bit about Cherise's play coming home. Almost like she set the tone for you.
COACH SANCHEZ: Cherise has been like that all year long. We went and played at Wyoming, she scored the first six points. We were a little stagnant in the beginning.
Cherise is, and is going to be, a phenomenal player. She's even a better person. She's long, confident, she can handle the ball, shoot it, take it to the basket, like you saw. We were very fortunate to get her out of Las Vegas. I'm glad she's wearing cherry and silver because I definitely wouldn't want to play against her.
Q. I can't imagine you could overlook anything with the season you've had. No. 1 seed loses earlier. You're coming off some awards, some recognition. You're in an unfamiliar place of getting a lot of attention and praise after a slow start to the season. Did you worry about overlooking an opponent a little bit?
COACH SANCHEZ: No. We know better.
We were picked ninth. We were 1 7 at one point. We know better than to overlook anybody.
Your opponent played on this court one time and we hadn't. That's a little nerve wracking. The first game of the tournament, this was our first game, is always a tough one.
I look back at the history. I've been at New Mexico 15 years, San Diego State one. I've been here the whole time. You see that first game. I remember when Colorado State beat Utah the year that everybody wanted to change seeds and brackets, everything like that. It happens. It happens.
When you see as much basketball as we've seen, you don't ever overlook anybody. You just have to stay focused, play. You're going to have games like this. You just have to be ready for them.
Q. Since you've been around the program so long as an assistant and now head coach, how does this compare to some of the other teams you've been around?
COACH SANCHEZ: It's hard to compare. It really is. Each team was so unique. We've had some very good teams here. We've had some very good players here.
This team is built like some of those teams being long, being athletic, having an inside presence, having an outside presence.
It's really hard to compare some of those teams. I think, like I told them before, they have a chance to be a special team. Our journey has been fantastic. Sometimes you don't want to get to the destination because your journey's so much fun. We're still on our journey. Hopefully we can be on it for a while.
Q. I know this game just happened, but in your processing will you have a chance in the next few minutes to think about tomorrow's opponent? How do you match up with Fresno State or Wyoming?
COACH SANCHEZ: They're two tough teams. They're two difficult teams.
Fresno State is just very good. They've got an inside game, outside game. Sheedy and Smith are phenomenal players. Collins does a great job of forcing tempo and getting to the hole. Huff [sic] does a great job if she's hitting threes, they got Fox off the bench. That's a really good team.
The week before we played Wyoming, I saw them beat UNLV 99 to I forget what it was. We had just lost to UNLV. I'm like, Oh, great. I know what they can do with Woodward, Dent, and Mileto. Rader can get in there if you let them throw lobs.
It's two different teams in some respects, but we've got to be ready for anything. We'll sit and watch. Trust me, on the way here, I've already processed it, figured out what we need to do, not do. Kids will get back and get some rest. We have to be ready for tomorrow. This is going to be another great game with Fresno and Wyoming. We'll see what happens.
Q. Cherise starts quick, Tiesha. Alexa Chavez seemed to be one player throughout the game that came up with big plays. Talk about her game.
COACH SANCHEZ: Alexa does that all year long. She's kind of a silent assassin. She had eight rebounds, seven points, three assists, zero turnovers, two steals. She's always in the mix of everything. There could be three or four black jerseys, then you see little Alexa battling her tail off. She's done that for us all year. Her and Khadijah both. It was very, very physical. They had to do what they had to do to get in there and get rebounds.
On their ball screens, she's the one that had to help off Fort and all those quick guards. Harvey had a great game. She's a nice player. Alexa did a nice job of trying to contain it.
Like I said before, we played a very good San Diego State team.