|
|
|
Baylor - 81
Iowa - 66
LISA
BLUDER: It's tough to see the season come to an end. We had a great
run. We had great seniors. Just super kids in our program. I'm so proud
of the type of kids we have in our program. They're incredible role
models, they're great students, they're wonderful to come to work with
every day, and I just appreciate them so much and appreciate my
seniors. The effort that they've given us the last four years has been
nothing but amazing, and I'm so appreciative of those young ladies.
It's hard to remember the good times. Sometimes the last one is so
painful, but I'm going to try and remember all the good ones we had
this
Q. Samantha and Melissa, as you look back on your four
years in the program, if you had one or two Kodak moments that years
from now you want to share, what would they be and
MELISSA
DIXON: Yeah, there's a lot over the last four years. It's obviously
been the best four years, but making it to the Sweet 16 definitely has
to be up there. It was a goal not only for this year but for the last
four years, and to finally do it, it was so special, and it's something
I'm going to remember for the rest of my life. I'm so thankful to have
done it with these people and to have been a part of this program for
the last four years.
SAMANTHA LOGIC: Yeah, probably No. 1 would be Sweet 16 basketball wise. Like the most, I think.
Q.
Sam, obviously number-wise a great performance by both you and Niya
Johnson. I think the two of you combined for 30 assists and one
turnover. Assess your performance, both you and she?
SAMANTHA
LOGIC: Obviously, yeah, she's the leader of that team, great passer,
great leader on the floor, conducts that offense really well, puts her
team in a position obviously to win, and I think any day you're going
to take that win over any other stat. Just congrats to Baylor. Very
good basketball team, and they're going to make a run, I think. The
next game, that'll be a fun game to watch. But I'm just happy to go out
with my team. I mean, do battle with this team. I wouldn't pick anyone
else.
Q. Your fans had a 10-hour drive to get here unless they
flew. If they flew, they were flying into a tornado. It still was a
remarkable representation out there. How much does that mean to you,
and did you feel that, and also the enthusiasm from the bench while you
were out there on the floor?
SAMANTHA LOGIC: Yeah, we always
do. Our fans are great. That's why I think it's a huge part of our 18-0
at home. We were playing in front of them. They're so supportive of us
and they have been for four years. I think you saw just a glimpse of
that today. That's a long drive and a lot of people not even -- might
not even personally know someone. They just love Hawks. They just love
watching us play, and we love playing for them, but yeah, you always
feel that enthusiasm there. They're just waiting for a run for us. In
the first half, you feel it and our bench we always feel it. They are
so great, they're loud, they're enthusiastic. They want to win so bad
that they really just don't care about their own minutes. I think this
whole team is so selfless in that way. They just want to celebrate for
us so badly and I think it's just so apparent to everyone watching that
how much we love playing together, even if they're not on the floor.
Q.
Melissa, talk a little bit about when Doolittle went out, getting hit
in the nose. You guys went on a run and how that changes, and Samantha,
talk about the adjustment you made posting up?
MELISSA DIXON:
Yeah, we obviously felt really bad for Beth when she went down and we
all kind of came together. We're like, we want to do this for Beth. We
want to get it for Beth. I think we just kind of rallied around that
and tried to go on a run for that. We just came up a little bit short.
SAMANTHA
LOGIC: Yeah, without Beth in there, it's tough. She's one of the best
posts in the Big Ten. She's so versatile offensively and defensively,
just a huge part of our team for the last four years, and I don't think
I'd take any other post. But with her out, think we kind of spread the
floor a little bit, and just having a size advantage, I like posting
up. I just looked at that a little bit more across the board because we
didn't have that presence in there to try to make up. Not going to make
up too much without her, but just try what you can do.
Q. You
guys went on a really nice run at the end of the first half. I think
you scored 11 in a row to get within two. How big were those two
three-pointers that they hit at the end of the half to open it back up
to 8?
SAMANTHA LOGIC: Yeah, that was big, going from a
one-possession game to a three-possession game pretty much, it was
big-time shots by them. We lost -- one of them we just lost in our
zone. You just can't deal with that. We can't have that happen,
obviously, and then the other one was just at the buzzer, just kind of
crazy defense, was just trying to get a steal and they just found her
at the right time. We would have had momentum going in the half and
we've just got to learn to get stops there. Might have been a different
game then.
MELISSA DIXON: Yeah, we were finally
taking our
run and we were finally getting stops and were able to push it in
transition. We were finally trying to go up on them, but we just kind
of collapsed on some drivers and they got some open looks that way, and
it just kind of cut our run a little bit.
Q. Samantha, did
that linger at all in the second half when you came out? I think you
went three minutes without scoring after halftime?
SAMANTHA
LOGIC: I don't think it did, mentally at least, because we were getting
good looks. We're really good shooters as a team. I thought we were
getting good looks, weren't rushing or anything. I thought we still
were taking good shots, they just weren't falling. Their shots were
falling, some uncharacteristic ones so you've just got to battle
through that, and I thought we did a good job trying to make a little
run after we knocked some shots down.
Q. Melissa, they were
obviously pretty set on face guarding you all night and taking you out.
Talk about fighting through that and trying to get open and trying to
remain a part of the offense.
MELISSA DIXON: Yeah, it's
happened before, but with our team, you know, I just kind of have to
not let it frustrate me because we have so many offensive threats on
our team, that if they are going to take my three-point shooting away,
someone else is going to be open and we're going to have four other
great scorers who are going to have open looks, so it's just kind of
taking it and just not being frustrated and knowing that it's
helping my teammates get open.
Q.
I don't want to get you in trouble, but could you talk about the
disparity in foul shooting since both teams seemed to be driving the
paint?
LISA BLUDER: Yeah, we really could not get to the
free-throw line. At halftime that was the difference. They were 9 for 9
from the free-throw line, we didn't shoot a single will free throw. You
have to go back a ways to probably find that.
|
|
Contact us