Lisa Bluder Postgame News Conference Transcript

Nov. 25, 2014

Coach Bluder: Game looked a little different than Saturday night. This is kind of a low slow down game. We don’t really like to play that way. But that was UNI’s plan coming in.

In addition to that, we didn’t shoot the ball well the first half. So we really weren’t making them pay for slowing it down like that.

In the second half we got a lot better. I was happy with the way we took care of the basketball. We only had nine turnovers tonight. Shot the ball well from three point range, especially in the second half; did a good job with that. It was a nice game.

Whitney played well out there for us. Sam, again, was our leading rebounder for us, our point guard. But it’s kind of one of those games I felt like we should have grown up a little bit and I don’t really know that we did that tonight.

Q. What happened in the second half? Kind of started at the end of the first half, but all of a sudden they could not score at all. What were you doing?

We just kind of turned it up a notch. We wanted to be a little bit more aggressive in the passing lanes because they were kind of walking the ball up, able to pass the ball around without really attacking, taking so much time off the clock.

We said, `Let’s go try to get turnovers.’ We did. We forced 22 turnovers on them, so that was good.

Q. The first half, zone trap, was that an attempt to speed up their offense a little bit more?

Absolutely. We wanted them not to be able to hold the ball out there, pass it around the perimeter. We were trying to get some traps in there so they would either have to make a mistake or take a shot quicker than they wanted to.

Q. How important is it to be able to win this way?

I think it’s good for us. We don’t like to play this way. So I guess it’s good when you get a 28 point victory this way.

But, yeah, it’s not really our style. But we did still up tempo. We got 11 0 on the fastbreak points. That’s good.

But it’s good to go against different styles of play and still be successful, absolutely, and know you can do it so the next time it happens to us it’s not a surprise.

You mentioned Whitney played so well. Before the season started you were saying she was a player you can’t keep on the bench. What has she shown to put her in the starting lineup?

I just think she’s incredibly levelheaded for a freshman. She was really court savvy out there; real confident with the ball. She takes care of the ball extremely well. She doesn’t have turnovers.

She’s shooting the ball now well as well. I think she’s grasped our offense quickly for a freshman. On the defensive side of the ball I think she creates some problems as well.

Q. In the second half, what were you able to do on the offensive end that you weren’t able to do in the first half?

I think we knocked down a few more shots in the second half that we did not hit in the first half. We shot a lot better. I thought we attacked the rim a lot better. In the first half we were settling passing the ball inside to Beth. I thought we did a much better job in the second half of attacking and getting to the rim for higher percentage shots.

Q. Out to Las Vegas this weekend. What are you looking for out of your team, what are you expecting from Arkansas and Gonzaga?

First time we’ve been on the road. That’s going to be unusual for us. At least it’s a neutral court so that’s good. We leave tomorrow for Vegas. We’ll have a practice on Thursday. Nice Thanksgiving dinner with the team. Then play Arkansas on Friday, a team from the SEC that’s receiving votes. I think they’re undefeated right now. Gonzaga is undefeated right now. Gonzaga beat Dayton by double digit numbers, out rebounded Dayton by 12.

Part of their toughness is their home court. I’m glad we’re getting them on a neutral court, but they’re a very good basketball team.

Thank you. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

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