OU-Texas Tech Postgame Quotes

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Oklahoma Head Coach Sherri Coale

Opening Comment:

“I think there are lots of ways to win basketball games, and we won one ugly today. We'll take it. I thought we showed great poise down the stretch and made big shots at big times. We got emphatic rebounds when we had to have a rebound and went to the free throw line and converted enough to finish with more points than they did. I'm proud of our effort, again, I thought we showed great toughness and we had great contributions from our bench especially in the first half when we were in all kinds of foul trouble.”

On what she learned about her team with how they won:

“I think that there is another level of trust that maybe we haven't seen before that just allowed them to stay calm and sort of just plod away. I felt like the whole game was just plodding, whether it was from all the whistles early in the game or just us not making shots. The whole thing felt like we were just plodding along. That's okay. That can be effective too. That's something that maybe we haven't seen before that we didn't really know.”

On what she tries to do when the team is struggling offensively:

“Well, we probably tried to do too many different things, that's on me. I probably called too many different things. I probably should have let them stay in something for a while, whether it's motion, or it's man or zone, I probably should have left them in that a little longer rather than trying to manipulate things too much. Coaches can sometimes get in the way. I felt like I got in the way today.”

On Gioya Carter's performance:

“Well, I thought her second half was tremendous. She really just focused, overly focused on the fact that she didn't feel very well and she doesn't want to tell you, but I don't mind telling you. She is just a little bit under the weather, so in the first half she was having a little trouble breathing and we told her to find something specific to focus on so you forget about that. I think the fact that the game was close, she just kind of dug her heels in and said 'I have to do what I do' and she was terrific in the second half, just terrific.”

On if she was monitoring Gioya's minutes:

“Trying to. Trying to. She was good about letting us know when she couldn't catch her breath and we would give her a quick rest and get her back out on the floor.”

Oklahoma Player Quotes

Sophomore guard Gioya Carter

On what picked up for her in the second half:
“I think I kind of started off slow. I was just letting other things affect me instead of just going out there and playing. But I think as the game went on I really just got lost in the game and settled in.”

Freshman guard Gabbi Ortiz

On the game not having a certain flow:

“Every media timeout we just looked at each other and locked eyes and said, “we're not losing this.' We're taking this week-by-week and this is week three and we're winning week three. Everyone on the court was confident about it and there was no doubt in mind that we were going to win the game. I have all the trust in my teammates. Even though the game wasn't going like it usually does and we weren't connecting like always on offense, we found a way to fight with each other and win the game.”

On if players played in spurts:

“I wouldn't necessarily say it was someone's turn. We talked to KayKay [Kaylon Williams], and coach was like, 'This is your moment K. K's going to get two straight baskets.' She missed a couple in a row and then she came down and I had a couple of entries to her and she had some great big plays. I think it was just whatever was in the flow of the game. I mean there really wasn't a flow, but whoever had the open shot would take it down the stretch.”

Sophomore guard Peyton Little

On defense:
“I thought we could have been better defensively. As far as the steals, I just try and get where the ball is going to go and see where the play is going to happen.”

Texas Tech Head Coach Candace Whitaker

Opening Statement:

“Tough game. I thought we battled very, very hard. I'm proud of our fight. I thought we made some plays at the right time towards the end to stay in it. Proud of our group.”

On the defensive game plan:

“I thought we had a great game plan defensively. We made a lot of adjustments from the first time we played them and our kids carried that over and did a great job defensively. We struggled a little bit shooting the ball here, so I thought we had some looks that maybe should have gone toward the end. We missed quite a few layups, had a lot of put backs. We were getting them on the glass pretty good the last couple of minutes, I thought. Those opportunities, you've got to finish those. You've got to go to the line. We've got to go to the line more. Big difference there. There's little things you go back and look here and there. And this team, in two weeks, has made a lot of strides. The difference when we played hem last time and this time, I thought was significant.”

On he broad outline of the defensive plan:

“Well, we wanted to stick to our defensive fundamentals of being up the floor and shrinking gaps. Obviously they (OU) love to put it on the floor and attack you so we had to do a better job of guarding the ball. How we were guarding the ball was important. They went to the middle almost every time on us. We wanted to take away their middle drives, shrink the floor, not allow such open gaps and obviously get to 3-point shooters. I honestly don't think they had a lot of wide, wide open threes. We were there most of the time at least contesting, making those shots much more difficult. We gave the post much more trouble by showing traffic at times and turning them over. As they put the ball on the ground, their head goes down, the ball goes down and we wanted to make plays there. We also wanted to keep them out of rhythm, which is what we did.”

On how much Kelsi Baker and Dayo Olabdode's foul trouble impacted them late in the game:

“That always impacts us. Those two players need to be on the floor. They are our best offensive duo in the four and the five so any time they are in foul trouble, it impacts us. Especially on the offensive end.”

On what she has seen from Gioya Carter compared to last year:

“She seems to be taking over more of a go-to role for them. When they need a bucket, they go to her. She is a great one-on-one player. It seems like she is trying to create more for herself off the bounce.”

On what she has seen from Dayo Olabdode on the perimeter:

“When we recruited her, we knew she shot the three really, really well. So I think it has been a matter of her adjusting to the college game, feeling more comfortable. We encourage her to be a threat at all times when she has the ball in her hands.”

Senior Guard Amber Battle:

On how this team has grown over the years:

“Definitely our team has matured over the years. We have a lot of experience and we have a lot of newcomers that have been giving us everything they have. We just need to keep fighting. We're giving good teams good games and if we keep fighting, keep hustling, keep working together, we'll get some key wins.”

On OU responding and what made it tough to stop them:

“Yeah, Oklahoma is a great team. They have great shooters, great penetrators, and we just have to play our team defense and they got some key scores but we've just got to keep playing defense.”

Freshman Forward Dayo Olabode

On how her game has improved:

“Well, in practice I try to shoot as much as I can. My teammates are encouraging me to shoot more and just attack and do what I do best. So, I try to shoot as much as I can when I'm open and do what I do best.”

Players Mentioned

Gioya Carter

Gioya Carter

Peyton Little

Peyton Little

Gabbi Ortiz

Gabbi Ortiz

Kaylon Williams

Kaylon Williams

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