Stanford 72, Maryland 66
THE MODERATOR: Welcome to Maryland. Coach?
COACH FRESE: Credit. Obviously we got beat by the defending national champions. They're really, really talented. That first quarter really impacted us with the way they came out and shot the ball.
I thought we spent too much time trying to feel out that first half with them. Really proud of the fact -- I love our fourth quarter. The fact that we didn't quit fighting. We laid it all out there.
I can't say enough for our seniors, especially Katie and Chloe. I wish I would have had four years to coach the two of them, and Channise and Zoe who finished their careers with us.
For our returners, we are going to use this to motivate us to come back even better.
Q. I wanted to ask about the first quarter. Was it something they were doing defensively or was this an off offensive night for you guys?
CHLOE BIBBY: I think they punched us first. I thought we were ready, but obviously they came out and they punched us first definitely toward the end of that quarter.
I thought we gathered ourselves, and our defensive effort was -- I was pretty happy with it, honestly. We just couldn't put the ball in the hole, and at the end of the day that's what matters.
I thought we could have crashed the boards a little harder that first quarter, and that's what knocked us back for the rest of the game.
Q. Angel, can you describe what it was like to deal with the height -- well, defending against the height of the players, especially with the three of them all be over six foot down in the post?
ANGEL REESE: Yeah, I played them in November and I been playing Cameron Brink since high school so I knew about her athleticism coming out at the beginning, so I had the shot faking, try to move her on that, and do as best I cold to help my team.
Q. Stanford is deep, and if Haley Jones comes out she scores eight points in the first seven minutes, and then it's Cameron Brink and then it's the Hulls. How frustrating is it to play against a team where someone is a threat and they just keep coming at you?
CHLOE BIBBY: They won the national championship last year for a reason. As you said, they are deep, and they do, they come in and execute really well. So credit to them. I thought they did that tonight.
They were smart with their plays and execution, so obviously wish them all the best going forward.
Q. For Diamond and Angel, oftentimes a loss like this can serve as a spur for the next season. I wondered if you would talk about how you plan to use this loss to spur you toward next year.
ANGEL REESE: For me it's humbling. I need to work on my game and work on things that I suffered from this season. They backed up on me a lot and I should have taken a jump shot and I wasn't as confident in it, and I know coming into next season I will be confident with that.
So working on my weaknesses and doing whatever I need to do to help my team next year.
DIAMOND MILLER: To piggyback on Angel, to continue to grind. The grind doesn't stop because we lost. We have another season and we've got to be ready, so we've got to start grinding again.
Q. Chloe, I wanted to ask, how did you feel that Stanford -- what led to their advantage on the boards? It seemed like a lot of the margins of the game they seemed to have an advantage. What led to that?
CHLOE BIBBY: I think we needed to crash the offensive boards more, honestly. Sometimes those 50/50 balls we were caught a second behind and they took full advantage of that, so credit to them.
They work really hard at that, and i think were just those little one percenters which we were a second late and they punished us for that.
We struggled with that in the first half, and in the second half, in the fourth quarter, I was really proud with how we executed and fought and played with heart in that fourth quarter.
That's Maryland basketball, and I hope that these guys can take that into their remaining years. Really proud of how we executed in that fourth quarter.
Obviously not what we wanted, the result at the end of the game, but I think it's all learning lessons.
Q. Chloe, two short years ago you stepped on to the Maryland campus. What are your overall thoughts of your career right now?
CHLOE BIBBY: I feel grateful and blessed that I played at such a great university and under such a great coach and my teammates. Such a blessing to be able to come in here and find a family so quickly.
Obviously with COVID and everything, that was just a mess and now it all kind of transcended. It was incredible to end up here and just to have the experience that I have.
I'm really grateful for that. Yeah, as I've said, just truly feel blessed. Maryland has felt like home for these last two years, and being so far away from my actual home they have done an amazing job at welcoming me and making me feel part of the family.
Q. Diamond, you're often the emotional and vocal leader among the team. What was the locker room like? Did you say anything to your teammates?
DIAMOND MILLER: Yeah, we just got to soak this in. It hurts, but I think the better team won today and they played us really hard. I love these girls. These are my teammates, and I'm going to stick with them until the very end. Yeah.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies. Questions for Coach.
Q. Brenda, you have played them twice. Is that the best team in the country?
COACH FRESE: No question. I have been fortunate with the No. 1 seeds we've played. Their length, the way they pass, the way they can score the basketball, and obviously that length gives you fits on the defensive end with their size.
We really struggled on the offensive end. I've said it all year, I don't think they probably get even enough credit on the west coast nationally of what they've done all year. That's their 23rd straight win in a row. The deepest, most talented team I've ever faced.
Q. What did they do to take away Ashley and Katie?
COACH FRESE: Well, you know, you look at their size from two through five, that length gave us fits. And then you put Anna Wilson as that pest defensively. She gave Katie no open looks. Her defensive pressure and intensity was unbelievable. For us, we knew we were going to have to kind of score on that mid-range pull-up game but, again, that length bothered us on the offensive end.
Q. Coach, can you talk about the troubles that you had on the perimeter, especially with the height that Stanford has around that area?
COACH FRESE: Yeah. I thought it hurt obviously when Diamond got in foul trouble. She was being aggressive, being able to help us initially but, again, just not being able to get Katie open looks, the length, trying to be able to get downhill and get to that pull-up, but, again, their size -- and you come off the bench you've got 6`5 coming in off the bench and they sub in with great length and size.
Q. Coach, I was wondering if you could talk about some of the moments that make you the proudest after such a trying season.
COACH FRESE: Yeah, you know, just really proud of their resiliency. This team could have given up many times just through all of the adversity that they faced. To be able to get back to a Sweet 16 with a season that was really kind of unlike any season we have ever experienced.
Just proud of the fight, the fact that they never gave up. I think this game kinda showed that when you saw the fourth quarter a lot of teams could have folded today and they just continued to put their head up to and continued to fight.
Q. Coach, I wanted to ask, it looked like Ashley didn't play the last six minutes or so of the game. Can you talk about what went into that decision?
COACH FRESE: She had a stomach bug going on from yesterday to today and she voiced it to me early in the game that she wasn't feeling well. I thought she was sluggish, she was lethargic and Shy gave us great minutes. I thought Shy was unbelievable with her motor, her poise and her aggressiveness so, again, reading within game, where I felt like we could get -- I thought the battle in the fourth quarter with those on the court, it was working. There was no reason when we cut that lead down that the group that was out there did a tremendous job of just continuing to battle.
Q. Brenda, in what ways do you see this club getting better next year?
COACH FRESE: I think there is a lot of lessons that we can take from this to be able to utilize. We're going to lose a lot of great leader championship in Chloe and Katie, so that leader championship is going to have to step up when you talk about going into next season. I think there's a lot of things.
Like I said, the adversity part, being resilient through -- when things aren't going your way. Tonight we battled through a lot of foul trouble, and there's going to be different things that go on next season that we can take from this season to be able to learn from.
Q. Brenda, Tara mentioned she thought an advantage that they had was that you guys had played each other early in the season, so the scouting report was more like a review. You said the other day, two totally different teams, right? How much better were they tonight than they were when you played them in November?
COACH FRESE: You know, I think just their execution on the offensive end. You've got a team that's gone six games through the NCAA Tournament last year, and they have that experience of what it takes to get to an Elite Eight to a Final Four to be able to win a national championship, so you see them clicking on all cylinders. Tonight for us, unfortunately, we had to have that as well on the offensive end and unfortunately didn't.
THE MODERATOR: Coach Frese, thank you for your time.
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