Virginia Tech 92, Marshall 49
KIM CALDWELL: Obviously not what we wanted, but you've got to take a beat, you've got to take a second, you've got to reflect on the whole entire year as a whole, not just the last couple hours. So there's going to be some time hopefully quickly where we can look back and celebrate our season.
I appreciate every Marshall fan that tuned in. I appreciate every Marshall fan that was here in green. It was great to see our fans come out and show out in a pretty awesome hostile environment. So we appreciate you. We're sorry we didn't give you a better show.
Q. Speaking on that crowd, how much of that crowd affected you guys at the beginning? It seemed like communication was a little bit of an issue right there at the beginning and you kind of settled in a little bit and then the game got away from you. If you could just speak to the crowd and how intense that was and how much that affected you guys.
ABBY BEEMAN: Yeah, you guys draw a great crowd. It's really fun to play in, to have that experience. I know a lot of even Power Five schools don't get that. Just shout out to you guys' fan base for that. As far as playing in it, obviously you want the fans to cheer for you, not against you.
But yeah, it definitely affected -- I think we just had adrenaline going because so many people were in there, we couldn't hit shots early and they were hitting shots.
I'd say that's kind of how it affected us the most is it kind of got us too excited almost to play in front of all those people.
Q. When you look at the rebounding numbers and the margin of what the game ended up being, only minus 3 on the boards, can you talk about your offensive effort?
BREANNA CAMPBELL: Yeah, so we had effort on the boards. We just weren't hitting shots as we would like to. I think the effort was there. But yeah, like I said, we didn't really hit shots.
Q. Abby, you guys settled in some in the first quarter and did a lot of good things for a good portion of the second quarter. The last minute of the first half it kind of got away from you. If you could reflect back what were some of the things that went wrong in that final minute or two?
ABBY BEEMAN: Honestly, I was not on the floor for that final minute, but I'm pretty sure -- they probably hit some threes. I remember thinking to myself it was a big momentum changer because I think we were only down by seven and then a minute 30 left and I think they went on a 10-0 run and then we were down 17 at half. Just anything can happen in a minute. We can hit a lot of shots in a minute and so can another team, and that's kind of what happened today, unfortunately.
Q. What is one thing that you'd like people to remember this particular team by?
ABBY BEEMAN: Just how hard we play. We play a different style. Hopefully it's really fun to watch. It wasn't today because we were not hitting shots. But if you watch any of our games all year long, I would like to think that we gave people a good show to watch.
We're really a close team. We stay together. I know people outside of our locker room don't know that. But I hope you can kind of tell that we played hard until the end even though the score looked the way that it did.
BREANNA CAMPBELL: Yeah, we're a close team. We'll play hard until the end. Unfortunately, like Abby said, we didn't have the outcome that we wanted, but we're a hard-playing team, and I think our playing style is pretty cool.
Looking toward the future for this group, I think it'll be something special to watch, and I'm sure they'll be back here.
Q. Abby, what is next for you?
ABBY BEEMAN: That's a great question. I don't know. I mean, I love basketball, so yeah, we'll see. I'm not sure yet.
Q. They did a good job against you three-point-wise. Were they difficult to shoot over? Were you just not making shots? What was the problem there?
KIM CALDWELL: I just don't think it was our night.
Q. What about Virginia Tech made them such a challenge for you guys to make shots?
KIM CALDWELL: Their height, I think. A tough environment, on the road. Their length. Again, we kind of score in bunches, as you guys saw, just small bunches today, but normally when we get hot, we get hot, and we never had that momentum. I think we maybe had it for a second in the second quarter, but we never had that momentum so we couldn't really catch fire.
We didn't really turn them over the way we'd like so we didn't get the easy offense. We never really got to see the ball go in, but that's just a great team. We're rooting for that team, and we said that in the locker room, that hey, that right now -- we want them to win it. We want them to win it all. They've been through a lot, too, so hats off to them. I can't wait to see what they do next.
Q. When you talk about that height, it didn't seem to matter much on the offensive end. You were grabbing those offensive boards. Just talk about the rebounding effort as a whole. That's been kind of a staple for you guys this year. Can you talk about how you saw that work tonight?
KIM CALDWELL: Yeah, I think the neatest thing is they were quick to tell me about the rebounds after the game. They said, Coach, you see the box score. I said, I never want to look at it again. They said, we only lost the rebounds by three. So they're proud of that. They're proud of their effort. It's a culture thing that we've built. It's something that they look at and they can hang their hat on, and I'm happy for them, and bless them. Bless them for getting 20 offensive rebounds when we're significantly shorter in every single position. They did that well tonight, and they should be incredibly proud of that.
Q. What's it been like having Abby for this season? You've coached against her, now coached her. Obviously the success she had throughout the season speaks for itself, but her leadership and the respect she seems to garner from her teammates also speaks volumes.
KIM CALDWELL: Yeah, absolutely. I think she's a once-in-a-lifetime type of player that you get to coach. She is a leader. She gets everyone to play hard. She loves basketball. She's in the gym all the time.
She does everything right. I'm going to miss her, and I hope that I can find a way -- for those two both, I hope I can find a way to show them how much I appreciate them and how much they've changed my life over the past season. We had a great year, but it doesn't happen without them.
Q. Looking forward to next season? You lose two significant players there and a little bit more, but a lot back, too.
KIM CALDWELL: Yeah, absolutely. Those two players are invaluable, and Tamia is invaluable and they're irreplaceable, but I think we have learned a lot this year, and we obviously want to get back and we want to represent our school a little bit better when we come back, if we get to come back.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports