Tulane - 65, Charlotte - 52
THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and get started with an opening statement from Coach and then take questions for the student-athletes.
LISA STOCKTON: I'm just so proud of this team. I said yesterday it's certainly been a challenging year in some respects. I've said all along I feel like we have talent. I just feel like it's starting to really show. They're locked in. I think they're holding each other accountable. I give Amira a lot of credit for her leadership.
I'm just really proud that they look like they're loose and having fun and really kind of playing to our potential. But we came out today and we're just so focused and just kind of took over from the beginning, and it was you just a lot of fun.
THE MODERATOR: All right. We'll take questions from inside the room here.
Q. Just expound a little further on how they were able to just give you a quick start and never look back.
LISA STOCKTON: Well, I was saying to my assistants, I didn't say it to the players, but I think the advantage of playing the first game is that you are a little looser when you come in. I think that's good. I really challenged them defensively. Like, in that first four minutes, I wanted to really challenge 'em and they responded. Yeah, I think that's part of it.
Then the communication out there was really good. It does help that Charlotte's a team that we played twice, so that was easier for that quick turnaround. And I would tell you, I think Amira needs to play in Texas all the time. She's so good when she plays here, and also -- or your parents have to move to New Orleans, one or the other. But it just was two really good team wins. I think you get all these people in double figures, you got Irina, who had seven assists tonight, and again, you have 20 assists on the night. It was just, it was fun to watch.
Q. Amira, Coach just mentioned this. I watched y'all play when y'all came to Rice?
LISA STOCKTON: Rice came to us. Yeah, played against Rice? No.
Q. So y'all didn't get to the back and forth?
LISA STOCKTON: We just played rice once.
Q. But it was enough?
LISA STOCKTON: We'll see who is in it.
Q. It was enough.
But Amira, your play tonight, you played like a leader tonight. Just talk about being ready to go.
AMIRA MABRY: Personally, I take every game as another opportunity. I think, like, as we were getting ready to come to Fort Worth and even play this game, we just were excited, like 1-0. I think that we realize that it's anyone's chance and why not be ours. I think we have that mindset going into tonight's game and it showed and we ended up executing well.
Q. You mentioned 20 assists on 27 shots and on defense, it seemed like everybody was firing on all cylinders. How important was the chemistry that your team displayed tonight and how is that going to factor in for the rest of the tournament?
LISA STOCKTON: Well, I told 'em at half I thought we looked like a machine on both ends of the floor. I thought the chemistry was great. So how important was it? I thought it was everything.
When a team plays so unselfishly, you don't force shots. I didn't think we did that tonight. We didn't force shots. Defensively they were just really talking and trying to take some things away from Charlotte. You look at it for the night, Charlotte shot 24 percent. That's a great defensive night. We've struggled a little bit defensively, and I thought that tonight just the communication was tremendous.
Q. Obviously you've got Temple coming up next. What kind of keys are you looking for out of your team? You've already seen Temple twice. How does that play into the matchup tomorrow night?
LISA STOCKTON: Well, I say in tournament play, we didn't even take a shoot-around today. We did everything on film today because we felt like we just needed to rest.
First of all, I'm not sure about Temple yet because we just got through this one, but I think this is the players' tournament. I can move 'em around, but if they do what they did tonight, we got a chance. I'm glad that we got to take some people out and not play them 35 minutes like we did the other night. But at this point they're playing to have another night and if they play like that, I think we can beat anybody.
But we got to show up every night and we got to really be mentally locked in. I think that's really important because we can't prepare for a team in a half a day and feel like that we know all about them. But, again, it's nice that we played 'em twice. We have a little familiarity to them, so...
Q. Also, for the one area that might -- you mentioned there were a lot of areas you guys played well and the one area you might have struggled in was the turnovers. You turned the ball over 19 times. Was there something that Charlotte was presenting you guys that forced you guys to turn over the ball or was it sloppy mistakes? What happened there?
LISA STOCKTON: We had seven from players that we put in at the end of the game. Again, I'm just saying I think the players that we had in that top six or top seven I thought we did a pretty good job. At the end, we had seven turnovers kind of down the stretch there that hopefully we can prevent. It's hard for our players. You sit on the bench and go in at the end of the game. I feel bad for them and then they're pressing.
So I think part of it is just to really point that out. That was a big mistake. When we were at Temple, we turned over the ball too much, and I think that's why we have won these two games that we've shared the ball and not tried to force things with our starters. I think we have to do that, Temple's really playing well right now, really athletic, and we're going to have to come out with a lot of energy.
Q. From your tournament experience, is there an advantage or disadvantage of you guys playing these last two nights and then Temple coming in and hasn't played in over five days? What's your perspective on that, and what can you guys, is the early part of that game tomorrow important when you are coming off Temple has been resting and you guys have been in a rhythm here?
LISA STOCKTON: Well, I don't think there's any advantage if you play five nights in a row. I don't know if that's any advantage at all. I think coming out tonight in that first part of the game we probably had a little advantage because we had played last night and the rust was kind of off. I don't know. I think it's about how much you can push yourself and just how mentally tough you can be. We'll worry about fatigue at another time. I'm really happy that I got to rest a lot of people tonight. I can remind them that we practice two hours and, you know, then we play the next day. So it really is about the toughness and if they can fight through that. I think Amira might get on everybody if they said they're tired. She's pretty vocal. So, the sophomore's pretty vocal. I just think you got to be mentally tough if you want to keep playing.
THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you, Coach. Thank you, Amira.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports