Notre Dame - 106, Stephen F. Austin - 54
THE MODERATOR: Welcome everybody to the Stephen F. Austin post-game press conference. We're joined by two student-athletes and head coach Leonard Bishop as well.
We'll get to a coach statement before we get to questions from the student-athletes.
LEONARD BISHOP: An unfortunate way to end a really good year. Really proud of my team for battling through injuries and battling through adversity all year long. These two have embodied Ladyjack Basketball through and through all year long. Really proud of them. Glad they're up here with me.
Notre Dame, credit to them. They came out and executed their game plan. They made shots. It feel like we turned the ball over a little too much which allowed them to get out in transition and get flowing.
Really proud of our team, the way we represented Stephen F. Austin, the university, the city of Nacogdoches, and our fans. Really proud of this crew.
Q. Playing a big crowd like this, what impact do you think that had? Some of the turnovers that Notre Dame was able to capitalize off of in the second half to kind of push that lead out?
TRINITY MOORE: I wouldn't say it had an impact on us turning the ball over. We were just kind of careless with it, not valuing the possession. But the crowd, good for Notre Dame, feeding into giving them some momentum to capitalize off our turnovers. Turnovers is on us. We've just got to take care of the ball.
AVERY VANSICKLE: Definitely a big crowd, but we've played in front of some big crowds all year. It was just mainly on us not taking care of the ball. Overall, it doesn't take away from our season, and I'm still very proud of us.
Q. What are the biggest takeaways from the season overall? I know you guys came in with a 15-game win streak, but your season ending here at South Bend today.
AVERY VANSICKLE: I think this group showed a lot of resilience overall. I think we battled through a lot this year. Just to be able to come together again today, I don't think we showed everything we could have. As unfortunate as that was, there's still so many moments throughout the season where we battled.
Ultimately, you're going to look back and think of how fun this season was and what an opportunity it is to play such a good team here.
Overall, not the best way you want to end your season, but at the same time, just very appreciative and just really thankful for this group and all the work they've put in this year.
TRINITY MOORE: I'll second that. I'm proud of our group. It was a fun year playing with everybody. We had a pretty new squad, a mix of new and old. I'm just proud of how far we came and just us being able to have this opportunity. We hope to capitalize off of it later on in the future.
Q. A lot of eyes on this program today with the game being on ESPN as well. What do you want fans to take away from this program from this year and from today and overall?
AVERY VANSICKLE: Just that we're willing to put in all the work and just make you guys proud. We really just want to build off of this and carry it into next season and just learn from everything today, take the good with the bad, and then just keep working away. Yeah, just do it for the town. We're very appreciative for them and all the support they've given us.
Especially throughout this year, they've really showed up for us. We give a lot of credit to them, just for all the love.
TRINITY MOORE: Yeah, I agree with what Avery said. This is also a place where you can come and compete for championships and have opportunities to show your face in the NCAA Tournament. So I appreciate all of our fans and supporters and family following us around all year and helping us to get here.
THE MODERATOR: Avery, Trinity, thanks so much for taking the time. We appreciate it.
We'll open it up to questions for Coach Leonard Bishop.
Q. Third tournament appearance in the last five years in this program. How do you build off of the success -- 29 wins this year and try to keeping this going moving on into next season?
LEONARD BISHOP: Yeah, I think we've got to continue to recruit high character student-athletes. Those two that were sitting up here, they're high character kids and also can play basketball at a high level.
That's been the recipe for us is to get good kids that want to come in, like we talk about representing Nacogdoches and SFA in a first class manner. And also that they're willing to lay it on the line every single game that they put the purple on.
Again, just recruit good people for our organization. That's the recipe for success.
Q. When you take a step back and look at this year, after coming so close in the conference championship in 2024, getting over that hurdle, getting back to the NCAA Tournament. Looking macro at this whole 2024-2025 season, what are your thoughts?
LEONARD BISHOP: What I said at the beginning, extremely proud of our group. They battled through resiliency. We were really close a year ago, and then we busted down that door this year. We were the 3 seed going into the tournament, won three games in three days. So we talk about resiliency. That's a word that we've said a lot, but ultimately, like our kids are a tight knit group, and that's what I've loved about them. Obviously I've had great memories coaching them on the floor, but some of my best memories of this group are going to be in the hotel, on the bus, at dinners, things like that.
That's what being a student-athlete and being in college athletics is all about. It's not just the competition on the floor, but it's the camaraderie off of it. I'm proud of our group and the culture that we were able to build this year.
Q. If you could just speak to Trinity Moore, her leadership, her role really increasing this year, being a senior, and what she's been able to accomplish and provide for this program.
LEONARD BISHOP: I truly love that kid. I'm lucky to be a part of her life. You talked about her role increasing from a statistical standpoint. She put in the work this summer to make sure she was able to lead on the floor for us, but her leadership off of the floor is really what I've been proud of.
She's a kid that comes hard and brings it every single day in practice and is dialed in, but then also has the character and also the silliness to also keep the room light and able to crack a joke at the right time to make everybody feel light and kind of lighten the mood and take some of the pressure off.
Honestly, as a coach, sometimes I need that as well. I'm so grind mode and focused on the next one, that she'll crack a joke, and I'm like, all right, we can kind of relax here.
Really proud of T. Mo and the way she's been able to develop her game and also develop her leadership skills as a part of this team.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports