March 8, 2009

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OHIO STATE QUOTES

THE MODERATOR: We'll go straight to the student athletes for their remarks.

Q. Jantel, what was going through your mind shooting the free throws in that last possession that they had; what were you guys trying to accomplish?

JANTEL LAVENDER: I was the first free throw I was letting my tiredness take over, and the second free throw I was like I gotta take my time, take a deep breath, and I focused more, I guess, and I knocked it down.

Q. Star, how tough was that game inside and was it almost like you and Jantel against Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton and Danielle Campbell and FahKara Malone was almost back and forth that way? Did it feel that way for you?

STAR ALLEN: At a point in time it did, but then I think once we started doing everything we had to do, it turned out to be like everybody against everybody.

Q. Jantel, what can you say was the difference in terms of the quality of play for both teams? Seemed much more competitive game than the other two games. What can you say was the biggest difference today than the previous matchup?

JANTEL LAVENDER: I don't know. I think that both teams, Purdue and us, we came out playing extremely well. I thought defense was really tough. I think the game was really physical, especially in the post. And we both wanted to win the tournament. And I think both teams played an excellent game. I think it just came down to that free throw.

So I don't know what the difference was, but just both teams played extremely hard.

Q. Jantel, on your last possession, did you get pretty much exactly what you wanted? Did you get they were going to you all the way, were they not, and were you supposed to take it up and did she foul you?

JANTEL LAVENDER: You asked me did she foul me? The play was to go to me. And I think that she thought that she was bodying up. I don't know. But it was a foul. It was contact. And I think that's the way we wanted everything to go.

Q. Star, their last possession, when Shavelle tipped the ball away from FahKara there at the end and they got the tie up, after that what did you guys want to do when they had like 1.1 seconds to go?

STAR ALLEN: To not let go of the ball, don't let them get any sets up.

Q. Jantel, you were named as Most Outstanding Player of the Tournament. I assume these awards aren't getting old.

JANTEL LAVENDER: Are they getting old?

Q. I assume they're not getting old, that you'll take all the awards that you can get?

JANTEL LAVENDER: Most definitely. I just come out and play extremely hard. I don't come to the tournament looking to be the tournament MVP. I just come out and I play for my teammates and we all come to play for each other.

Q. Jantel, you also talked about before the team got here you talked about a good post season team. How big of a step is this, sort of becoming a good post season team this year?

JANTEL LAVENDER: I think this is a huge step. I think it shows us how it feels to be a champion and how tough the tournament can be, because I think Purdue is a great tournament team and they're going to give a lot of people a lot of trouble.

So I think us winning this tournament is a major step for us, because we know what we have to do and how hard we have to play in the post season to be successful.

Q. Star, did the foul trouble in the first half and second half, did that bother you guys a whole lot, do you think?

STAR ALLEN: I think in the second half, once they got to like their one and one situation and it kind of made us a little timid about everything, but once we figured out we can't foul and we just have to stay in front of the ball, we was okay.

Q. For both of you, how tough was it to play without Sammy for a good part of that first half?

STAR ALLEN: I don't think I mean, Maria came in, and she came in and pushed the ball and did what she had to do. I don't think it was like a big difference.

JANTEL LAVENDER: I think our bench played extremely well today. They brought so much energy to the game and Maria Moeller came off the bench with so much energy and so did Sarah Schulze, so I think the foul trouble didn't affect us as much because they brought as much energy as Star and Sammy brought.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies.

Questions for Coach.

Q. Coach, how high of a seed do you think your team is deserving of?

COACH FOSTER: I'm not going to speculate. I think all of the criteria for end of the season, I think we played a schedule. I think the league is tough. I don't think you have to go any further than talking to Joe McKeown at Northwestern or Kevin Borseth at Michigan, people that came in from this league from outside, about the strength and quality of the Big Ten.

I would like the committee, some folks on the committee to talk to those two coaches. Because this league, it's a bear. And I think every team going into the NCAA tournament will be happy to be playing somebody else.

Q. Going into the NCAA Tournament, how much does a game like this, in this kind of an atmosphere and possession of possession game, how much is that going to help you?

COACH FOSTER: I think it's huge. And I think Sammy getting four fouls, having to sit. Maria Moeller who was a starting point guard as a freshman, coming in and being poised and doing the things necessary, being able to substitute offense/defense with Ashlee Trebilcock and Shavelle Little. And Sarah Schulze coming up huge when we needed a player to step up.

And I just think that our team did an absolute terrific job against a very good basketball team. We know what Purdue is capable of, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how the Big Ten teams do in the NCAA tournament.

Q. Coach, we've seen Jantel dominate throughout this tournament. Just your opinion on how good she is on a national scale. Is this an All American; is this somebody that should get strong consideration of that? Your thoughts on that.

COACH FOSTER: Well, depending on how we continue to do, I think she should be in the conversation for Player of the Year. Again, this is a quality league. This is a league that you go through an average 21, 22 points, you average double figure rebounds, you score double figures every time you go out, now that's where the air is rare.

Q. Can you go over the last play to her, to Jantel, what you wanted to do down there, and defensively what you hoped to accomplish against them in the final 6.2 seconds?

COACH FOSTER: Yes, we wanted to get the ball to her. At that point of the game you've got to respect everything so that perimeter has got to come out and guard. You don't want to give up an uncontested shot. And it obviously created the opportunity to get the ball in to her.

And we had, between Ashlee and Samantha Prahalis, Malone had four fouls, so it's going to be tough for her to pressure Sammy on the wing. But Ashlee did a great job of getting it in.

And Jantel was poised, especially after she missed the first foul shot. I think a lot of times players will tank the second one after missing the first. And, defensively, I've seen Malone get the ball and get up the floor. In fact, she did it the other day when I was watching the game, I believe it was against Wisconsin. I looked up and she got up the floor in I believe 6.1 seconds and got a shot off.

So the idea was for Shavelle to have a cushion to not let Malone go by her. And I think she did an absolutely terrific job with that. And then the ball was exposed and she poked. And at the end we just put a big on the ball and knew that they had to come off a screen, catch, turn in 1.8. But I watched Creighton win a game with a two bounce, two dribble pull up jump shot in .8 seconds, and it started when the player caught it. So I know 1.8 can be an eternity.

Q. Coach, can you talk about the growth of Brittany Rayburn just from the games you've seen her play, from earlier when you played them the first time to now?

COACH FOSTER: Well, I don't know if I can comment too much, because I saw her when she was a junior in high school. I thought she was really, really good then. I just think she's a good player. I think she's been a good player. What you're seeing is a good player get confident.

When that happens, then how hard they work determines whether or not they become a great player. She has a lot of attributes. She can go left, can go right. She's got a 3. She can pull up, takes it to the basket. She's strong. She's a good player.

Q. Most of your games haven't been close in the waning moments of the game. Can you talk about how you'll use what happened tonight as a learning experience especially in the tournament?

COACH FOSTER: We really emphasize and spend a lot of time on the defensive side of the ball in practice with stops and how important it is to stop, to make the first shot difficult, and to close out a possession by rebounding.

And I thought down the stretch we did an absolute terrific job of that. And there was a point where we were just exchanging baskets. And that's not how you win a game. You have to come up with the stops. And we did that, and it put us in position to win the game.

Q. You talked about Sarah and Maria, but it seemed like Ashlee was kind of there whenever you needed her?

COACH FOSTER: Ashlee's always there. Maria did something that she hasn't had to do this year for the length of time she had to do it, with Sammy in foul trouble with four fouls, and maintain. And Sarah has given us great minutes, quality minutes in X number of games, stepped up and took it to another level tonight with the energy that she brought into the game.

Ashlee was Ashlee. She knocked down shots. And she took her time. She played with a great deal of composure, and she played very physical defense when she had to against Lakisha Freeman, because Freeman is a big, strong kid.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. Congratulations.

PURDUE QUOTES

THE MODERATOR: The All Tournament Team is Jenna Smith of Illinois, Jantel Lavender of Ohio State, Star Allen of Ohio State, Brittany Rayburn of Purdue, Lindsay Wisdom Hylton of Purdue. And the Most Outstanding Player is Jantel Lavender of Ohio State.

We're joined by Purdue and we'll start off with opening comments from Coach Sharon Versyp and then we'll go to the student athletes for questions.

COACH VERSYP: I just thought this was an amazing basketball game. I mean, the runs, two top programs I feel in the country just really battled back and forth, both teams played great basketball. And you look at the stat line, you look at everything, you just didn't you just didn't wish anybody to lose a game like this.

But Ohio State, they've been ranked in the top 20 all year. We wish them nothing but the best of luck, obviously, in the tournament. Get a high seed. Hopefully people will look at us and get us a little higher seed because of the competition we had and with our foul trouble in the first half.

Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton only playing six minutes in the first half and our young kids, our bench came in and did an unbelievable job. I've never been so proud of a group of women. We didn't lose today.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student athletes.

Q. Lindsay, can you talk about being in a game like this in this kind of atmosphere with both teams sort of going back and forth and star players making big plays?

LINDSAY WISDOM HYLTON: I mean, we've been in situations like this all year, close games. We just had one with Michigan State. We fell short that game. And we felt we were ready for situations like this.

And we had a game plan. We didn't execute it to the fullest, and kind of some crucial moments. So that's why I think we fell short today.

Q. Lindsay, can you talk about the sort of maturation of Brittany Rayburn that you've seen this weekend and how she sort of stepped up her game on a big stage?

LINDSAY WISDOM HYLTON: She's done an unbelievable, phenomenal job, you know, as a freshman coming here, and no nerves got to her. I felt she came out and was aggressive all three games and she did a wonderful job.

And she helped us come back in leads and runs during the game. So she did a really good job, and I think she's going to be a really good player for the rest of the three years here.

Q. Even though you lost tonight, Lindsay, how much confidence knowing you can play one of the better teams in the country straight up, how much confidence does that go into the NCAA Tournament?

LINDSAY WISDOM HYLTON: It's huge confidence especially with our bench playing. They did an unbelievable job carrying us, especially the first half. It just shows the depth on our team, and everybody will have good confidence going into the tournament. So I think this is just it's a good eye opener for our team and we'll be ready prepared for the next tournament.

Q. Lakisha, coming in with the success that Purdue has had in this tournament and this venue and this city, is that a little bit of a home court advantage and did that help boost you guys to play the way you guys played?

LAKISHA FREEMAN: I think the tradition here is just awesome. It gave us motivation knowing we won in the past and we wanted to do the same here today. I think it was unfortunate, but it's great having the fan base we had today.

Q. Lindsay, on Ohio State's last possession there it looked like your intent was to try and foul Jantel Lavender before she got that shot off since she had one to get?

LINDSAY WISDOM HYLTON: That was the intent. I tried fouling her beforehand. I guess she picked up the ball a little earlier. She was on the run. But they called it on the shot. Knocked down the free throw.

Q. Kiki, can you talk about the play of the bench in that first half and being able to get you from point A to point B?

LAKISHA FREEMAN: It's amazing. It showed the depth, as Lindsay and Coach pointed out. We're a tough team. We have a lot of depth, not only the starters but we have great players coming off the bench. I think that showed tonight.

I think they did a great job, Brittany, the freshman, all the freshmen, everybody that came off the bench did a great job offensively and defensively and carried us.

Q. Lindsay, they rattled Iowa and Illinois pretty well with their pressure, but with FahKara back finally with a full game with those guys, were you pretty sure you could handle their pressure and give it back to them?

LINDSAY WISDOM HYLTON: Definitely FahKara Malone's been doing a wonderful job ever since she came back off her injury. I think that she's able to get the ball up the court quick for us and to run the offense really well. She has good floor vision and court vision and she did a good job running this team.

And she did a good job tonight with executing and running plays and her defensive presence is always there. And I think she did a really good job today .

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies.

Questions for Coach.

Q. Coach, what did you want to accomplish on that last offensive possession? Where were you trying to go with that?

COACH VERSYP: Well, when FahKara fell on the ground and got mugged got hugged, sorry, we were just going to get it in her hands and she was going to create. She was totally going to create a shot for herself or [Lakisha] or Brittany Rayburn, we had plenty of time to be able to do that. But it is what it is.

Q. With 1.1 left, were you just looking for something, anything you can get?

COACH VERSYP: We were trying to look for a lob for Danielle but it's difficult when you have a 6'6" kid guarding Kiki out of bounds. They were smart doing that. They had a guard on Danielle, and told Kiki to lob it, but there's no way she could get it over the top. So the only option right there was really a desperation with Brittany, and they're not going to call a foul in the last six seconds of the game.

Q. Sharon, can you talk a little bit about Brittany Rayburn, how she's sort of come of age in this tournament?

COACH VERSYP: I mean, Brittany's a gamer, she loves the game. She grew up in the state of Indiana loving Purdue. And she just has a lot of pride of the players before her and the strong tradition, and she plays for her seniors right now and she just wants to help this team and just carry that tradition.

But she can run the one, two, or three, she can post up. She's very difficult to defend. She's not afraid to take the shot. But she just played exceptionally hard, just like the rest of our team.

Q. Coach, can you talk specifically about Natasha Bogdanova's contribution in the first half when Lindsay was out?

COACH VERSYP: Natasha played exceptionally well. Really played good defense. Boxed out to allow others to get some rebounds. You know, just had a good shooting touch. So Natasha's key minutes were huge with Lindsay sitting out and then Danielle got her second foul and then Alex came in and we did an exceptional job, only being down by four at that point. But Natasha played exceptionally well.

And this is our team. This is our bench. This is what you do playing three games in three days, I think, again, you're seeing this is great basketball tonight. Sometimes on that third game it's ugly basketball. This is great basketball. It was a national exposure for our conference.

Q. Coach, at the end of the first half I think both teams had three players, three starters sitting on the bench with two fouls apiece. Do you think in the second half both teams kind of managed to kind of adjust to that and because it just seemed like the possessions, it just got better, I thought the game got better in the second half, that they played through that stuff?

COACH VERSYP: We're not in control of a lot of those things, and so both teams were able to just go down low and start posting up and playing the game.

And I think that really helped elevate the game today for both programs, to let the players play when it came down to post play and being able to show the talents, again, of our league.

Q. Coach, as you look ahead to the NCAA tournament, realistically how far do you think this team will go?

COACH VERSYP: We're talking about tonight, and FahKara Malone said it best: Usually I would cry in this scenario, but I have nothing to cry about. We played our hearts out. We did everything possible. We'll go far in the tournament. If we play like this, we'll make a loud noise. We we just have to keep that going now.

And with us we have to wait two weeks to play. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. But if we play like this and have this type of depth, it can be really, really beneficial for us. And we're just really proud of how we played, and we have no reason to hang our heads.

Q. Sounds like by your opening statement you talked about hopefully we get a good seed or hopefully the committee or people who are watching, could you speak to, if anybody's listening, sell Purdue?

COACH VERSYP: You have your point guard you've had for two and a half years that has run the show, who is your leader and your communicator, and she was out for nine and a half games. And we went 7 2. We beat Texas and Minnesota at home. We beat great teams without our leader.

I think that sells the case right there. We're playing great basketball since she's been back. Our team did a phenomenal job without her. She's become a better player for that. And then being able to play three games in a row and play against Ohio State, which, again, it's a one point game, but I thought it was phenomenal where I feel both programs obviously they've been in the top 20 or 25, but we're definitely a top 25 team.

Q. You talk about the caliber of this game. What's it say about these two programs that they can find it this late in a tournament like this and this was a championship game in every sense of the word, wasn't it?

COACH VERSYP: It really was. And, again, it shows that both programs have such strong tradition and just want to perform for their universities, for each other in every sense of the word and for the Big Ten. It's a battle.

We want our Big Ten to be known in the country that we are a top, we're one of the top conferences, and people don't see that. And I just think the parity that we have in our conference shows how tough we are. And the best statement is from Joe McKeown (Northwestern), who was in GW for years and he came to the league and he never realized how great the Big Ten was. Now he's living it and he gave the Big Ten so much credit because he didn't give credit before.

So I think Ohio State and us hopefully have made a statement that Big Ten is something special.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

Big Ten Women's Basketball

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