San Diego State 67, New Mexico 56
THE MODERATOR: For New Mexico we have student-athletes Nyah Willson and Aniyah Augmon. Coach Mike Bradbury, we can start with you with some comments on tonight's game.
MIKE BRADBURY: Yeah, got off to a rough start. I think with San Diego State, you get, one, a really good team. They've got a ton of talent, and now they're playing to their talent level. When they do that, it's really good. They'll have a chance.
The tough start did not help us. I thought they shot it well, and we couldn't seem to make one.
I think a couple of things you can attribute that to is they are old, they are experienced, and we really have three people that have ever played in a game here. A couple of them it was very limited minutes when they did. I think that kind of caught up to us a little bit today.
That's tonight's game, but I will say this has still been the most fun year of coaching a team in my eight years at UNM. These guys, they fight. They do it the right way. They're great people, great character, great human beings, and they're fun to be around.
It's hard because you're disappointed it ends, but there's no way, no loss at any time -- and you're always going to lose your last one -- would change my mind about coaching this team.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.
Q. You held them to ten points in the third quarter. Just what did you try to do defensively out of halftime to try to limit what they were able to do and kind of stop the bleeding a little bit?
ANIYAH AUGMON: We just had to be more aggressive. I don't think we were aggressive in the first half, and so we got out there with high energy and high effort, and we just had to be aggressive. That's it.
Q. How frustrating was it that you couldn't really capitalize on it when you were successful on the defensive end?
NYAH WILLSON: I wish we would have done it in the first half. I think we really didn't start getting physical and into the game until the second half.
We didn't start taking advantage of ball pressure until the second half, which we should have done. As you can tell, we have a lot of turnovers going into that third quarter coming out of halftime. If we would have took advantage of that the first half, we would have got it.
Q. You did start to kind of make a run, do some things better later in the fourth quarter. How happy were you with the fight and the willingness to keep going?
ANIYAH AUGMON: I'm always happy with our fight. We always give it all we have. When we play together and stick to our identity, we get a good result.
So we weren't sticking to our identity in the first half, and that was the result.
Playing with this team, playing together, being coached by these coaches is always fun. That kind of made us smile a little bit because we were kind of down, but we came back and we did what we can do.
Q. Aniyah first, you guys have come from behind like so many times this year, but it just felt like tonight you just couldn't hit that key shot to kind of get the momentum going. Was it frustrating for you guys?
ANIYAH AUGMON: Of course, because we've been in that position before. And so, like I say all the time, we've been here before. That was what I kept saying in the time-outs. We have to dig deep. We dug deep a little too late, so, you know...
Q. Nyah, just you ended up with 22 and obviously were attacking the basket. Did you feel like you had to do that at some point because the shots weren't falling?
NYAH WILLSON: I mean, that's just my role. Me and Aniyah, it's just to get downhill, so I took advantage of it and just getting the stops on defense. It's a team effort. They are the reason why I'm getting those points. They're the reason why I'm getting downhill, so yeah.
Q. Aniyah, last, just obviously you're going to have a little bit of a break now, but there's probably still basketball to be played. Are you able to put this one behind you quickly enough?
ANIYAH AUGMON: Yeah, I think so. This one hurt a little bit more than usual. We don't want to come here and lose the first game, so we're just going to put it behind us and keep pushing forward. My team is resilient, and we have been resilient the whole entire year, so we're going to do the same.
THE MODERATOR: We'll excuse the student-athletes at this time. Ladies, thank you. Questions for the coach.
Q. Coach, what was your message at halftime given you're down by 11 and not really doing the things that you know you can do, and what did you think of the way you responded?
MIKE BRADBURY: Yeah. We just needed to be a little more aggressive. We were uncharacteristically offensively taking bad shots and quicker shots than we normally take, and defensively, we, I don't know, looked stunned. Again, that's not usual.
I think San Diego State played really well, but the message was we have to bring the fight, and we have to compete at a higher level. We did that, and it was a little more competitive.
Q. Even though you didn't do what you obviously wanted to do this season, you're returning a lot of your players, so just how excited are you -- how much are you looking forward to improving and maturing during this offseason?
MIKE BRADBURY: Yeah, I think that would be great. This team will continue to grow, and I hope that's what happens.
Q. You've talked about it before. Sometimes playing that game on the previous day is actually something of an advantage. It seemed like they were obviously sharper coming out of the gate. Do you think that was an advantage today?
MIKE BRADBURY: Yeah, it always is. We'll see how it played out. I mean, obviously I guess the first game today, but that's a whole different deal. UNLV doesn't count in most of these things.
Then second game, I don't know. Neither one of them had played. Yeah, it's always an advantage. Now, for them starting the next day it turns into a disadvantage, but on day two it is. You're used to it.
Q. The one that didn't have a nice game today was Hulda. Can you talk about what she was able to do off the bench?
MIKE BRADBURY: She's continued to improve since the day she got here. The kid was given nothing, and she's earned everything that she gets now. She's now turned herself into extremely important part of our team, and couldn't happen to a better person. What a great kid.
Q. You got a while to wait before you find out what's next, I guess. What do you do when you guys get home?
MIKE BRADBURY: Again, sorry, I hadn't thought about it. I was planning on sticking around another day or two. I don't know. We'll take a couple of days off probably.
Q. Mike, did they do anything differently than you had seen on tape or in person from the three-point line to kind of affect your ability to hit the three ball?
MIKE BRADBURY: No, they didn't. They're good, and they're good defensively. Today they were exceptional on offense.
They're good defensively. They do what they do, and they did it well tonight. I thought we rushed some stuff and weren't patient enough. So that made their defense look even better.
Then it seemed like when we did get something at the basket or did get an open three, I mean, yeah, we didn't make any. V had some good looks, and just couldn't make them.
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