ASAP Sports Transcripts - Basketball - 2014 - BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT - March 7 - Katya Leick - Deb Patterson
KANSAS  87
KANSAS STATE  84 (OT)
DEB PATTERSON: Well, hard‑fought rivalry game, as it usually is when we line up against KU. I felt, you know, this is a game in which really just one or two plays down the stretch are going to separate you, and I was really proud of the competitive intensity that we brought. I thought we battled very, very hard through the course of the first 40 and all throughout the overtime. Holding an offensive rebound here and there, holding the ball, simple little turnovers sometimes separate you down the stretch, but all in all, I thought we competed extremely hard and very proud of the way we fought through the course of every minute out there to get that victory.
Q. Coach, can you kind of just describe the last play that you drew up to try to get the game‑tying three‑pointer?
DEB PATTERSON: Yeah, we were trying to set a wall screen and popped one of our screeners to the corner. We were a little short on getting the space that I had hoped that we would get, but still got Kindred out there to the corner, got a big on her, Gardner, so it was hard to get a shot off at that point, and just needed a dribble weave probably.
But it was at that point 10 seconds looking for the three to tie it, and was just hopeful we'd get that look or penetration kick or dribble weave three.
Q. You mentioned Kindred, just the game that her and Breanna had. I know it's tough tonight, but they probably set themselves up and it was a big learning experience for the future?
DEB PATTERSON: Well, I think we've seen great play from Kindred Wesemann through the stretch here. As we've kind of gotten to the second half of Big 12 games, her confidence and her ability to impact the game and make us better really escalated, so I was really proud of her growth. I told Kat in the locker room after the game this was just a great individual effort in your last game to show up and put the kind of game on the floor that she did individually tonight was really impressive. You have to leave your career feeling like it's very disappointing to experience the loss, but her aggressiveness and her overall play tonight was fantastic, I thought.
And then with another freshman here, Breanna Lewis, again, she's in there battling against one of the best post players in our league, and I thought she was an absolute warrior tonight, made great plays, defended extremely well with great maturity. She was dialed in, and she's a young lady with a great future ahead of her. Right about now, based on the way she competed this game and the last couple games, you wish we had about 15 more to play because at that point she might be turning that 20 into 30, which is pretty scary at this point but also something really exciting to look forward to.
Q. Coach, when you were up 16 points early, were you disappointed that you weren't maybe able to keep your foot on the gas a little bit more?
DEB PATTERSON: Well, you know at some point they're going to make a little bit of a run at you. I thought we had a lot of wasted possessions during that period of time. We got a little caught up on not defending the high on‑ball screens well, came out at halftime and I think had that fix, but we gave him them a little bit of momentum there on the defensive end. They started to get some dribble penetration and most of their points during that time were off the dribble and at the rim, so I thought we had a little leaking there defensively. And at the same time we let that impact our ability to finish shots, I thought, on the offensive end.
Both ends for a while there got to be a bit of a struggle for us, so they're just stepping up the ladder a little bit with those empty possessions and the penetrations to the rim.
Again, I thought we stopped the bleeding and got it fixed at halftime, thought the kids stepped up and did a great job making those adjustments and putting the game back at 50‑50.
Q. Katya, it's such a young basketball team. How have you seen them grow as the season progressed this year?
KATYA LEICK: Absolutely, I think the growth that each and every one of our freshmen have shown, let alone our sophomores and juniors, I think Lew is a huge example of that along with Kindred and Leti. Every one of our freshmen come into the gym every day and want to work hard. That's something I think that is rare to find in a group of five freshmen that come in, and the competitiveness and the amount of I guess you could say accountability we put on each other I think shows the progress that we can make, and I think the strides that we've made this season with our freshmen just shows the ability where we can go, and I 110 percent believe in this team, and I cannot wait to see what they have for next year. They're going to be great.