Off Reb 14 23
2ndChPts 17 28
PtsPaint 40 72
TEAM 1 2 3 4 T
UL 17 22 17 23 79
ND 27 21 25 26 99
STATS UL ND
FG% 48% 51%
FGs 32-66 42-83
3FG% 11% 27%
3FGs 2-18 3-11
FT% 81% 75%
FTs 13-16 12-16
TOs 16 12
PtsOffTO 16 23
TotReb 29 44
DefReb 15 21
Off Reb 14 23
2ndChPts 17 28
BenchPts 18 4
PtsPaint 40 72
FstBkPt 8 8
Blocks 3 3
Steals 4 7
Assts 15 17
Times Tied: 3
Time Tied: 1:48
Lead Chg: 0
LeadTime 0:00 38:12
Wonder what Louisville fans/coaches/players will blame for this one...
# Player PTS FG 3FG FT OR DR REB A PF TO BL ST MIN +/-
03* MABREY 12 4-12 2-7 2-2 1 0 1 7 4 1 0 2 29 28
05* YOUNG 21 9-18 0-0 3-4 6 4 10 4 1 3 0 1 37 24
11* TURNER 20 9-12 0-0 2-2 1 6 7 1 1 2 3 0 31 25
24* OGUNBO 12 5-19 1-4 1-2 0 6 6 1 2 1 0 4 37 25
32* SHEPARD 30 13-17 0-0 4-6 9 4 13 4 3 3 0 0 35 26
00 NIXON 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 -5
12 PROHAS 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 4 1 0 0 13 -7
22 COSGROV 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 -5
30 VAUGHN 4 2-5 0-0 0-0 4 0 4 0 1 0 0 0 11 -6
33 PATTERS 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 -5
TM TEAM - - - 2 1 3 0 0 0
TOTALS 99 42-83 3-11 12-16 23 21 44 17 17 12 3 7 0
GAME PCT 50.6 27.3 75.0 0
THIS HALF 51 21-40 1-7 8-12 12 9 21 10 11 5 3 4 0
HALF PCT 52.5 14.3 66.7 0
THIS QTR 26 11-18 1-3 3-4 3 5 8 7 6 2 3 1 0
QTR PCT 61.1 33.3 75.0
PLAYER PTS REB FG AST EFF
32 SHEPARD 30 13 13-17 4 38
11 TURNER 20 7 9-12 1 26
05 YOUNG 21 10 9-18 4 23
03 MABREY 12 1 4-12 7 13
Player PFs
03 MABREY,MARINA 4
12 PROHASKA,ABBY 4
32 SHEPARD,JESSICA 3
# Player PTS FG 3FG FT OR DR REB A PF TO BL ST MIN +/-
01* EVANS 9 3-11 0-5 3-4 1 2 3 6 1 3 0 0 38 -25
03* FUEHRING 2 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 1 3 0 0 12 -6
23* JONES 17 7-10 0-2 3-4 1 2 3 2 3 5 0 0 28 -19
25* DURR 15 6-15 1-6 2-2 2 3 5 5 3 4 0 2 37 -25
33* DUNHAM 18 7-13 0-0 4-5 3 5 8 0 2 1 1 2 33 -22
04 ROBINS 0 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 5
05 ROBINSO 6 3-4 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 1 4 0 0 0 20 -2
12 DUVALL 3 1-3 0-1 1-1 2 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 5 1
21 SHOOK 7 3-5 1-2 0-0 2 2 4 1 3 0 2 0 22 -12
24 LAEMMLE 2 1-2 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 5
TM TEAM - - - 2 0 2 0 0 0
TOTALS 79 32-66 2-18 13-16 14 15 29 15 18 16 3 4 0
GAME PCT 48.5 11.1 81.3 0
THIS HALF 40 16-38 0-10 8-9 14 5 19 7 11 8 0 3 0
HALF PCT 42.1 0.0 88.9 0
THIS QTR 23 9-23 0-6 5-6 10 1 11 3 4 2 0 1 0
QTR PCT 39.1 0.0 83.3
PLAYER PTS REB FG AST EFF
33 DUNHAM 18 8 7-13 0 21
25 DURR 15 5 6-15 5 14
23 JONES 17 3 7-10 2 13
21 SHOOK 7 4 3-5 1 12
Player PFs
05 ROBINSON,MYKASA 4
21 SHOOK,KYLEE 3
23 JONES,JAZMINE 3
25 DURR,ASIA 3
Beautiful Ladies!!!!
Beautiful Jackie and Jess --- my two first team All-Americans all season long. (Arike will continue to hold the pop-culture Icon roll and charisma, and if that [erroneously] gets her player of the year (it will actually be Ionescu), then God Bless and thank you. But I really hope that whatever happens does not squeeze out Jess and Jackie from the true first teams that they deserve.)
Whoever said that Abby can't play defense without fouling, disses her. Muffet for certain will not agree, and has said so. Abby is a coach's dream defender --- gripe about her scoring if anyone insists on berating our workaholic freshman.
Coach once again shows her genius. We are bigger in this game, so Muffet says go and eat up the boards like wildcats, girls, and they devour a pretty good BBall team. All Rise in Honor of Queen Muffet!!!!
THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Louisville head coach Jeff Walz and student-athletes Bionca Dunham, Asia Durr and Jazmine Jones. Coach, an opening statement.
COACH WALZ: Just first like to start off congratulating Notre Dame. I thought they really did a great job of controlling the glass, which was what was our problem. You come into a ballgame, injuries, they happen. They're part of it. Unfortunately, about found out about 20 minutes before tip A.C. was not going to be able to go and Sam goes down with a sprained ankle. But still it's the next one up. And we just -- we just could not
gain any ground on the defensive glass for us. When you play somebody and they get more offensive rebounds than you get defensive rebounds, it's not going to be a good day. And unfortunately for us that's what took place. So you've got to tip your hat to them. I thought at times we fought, we made some really nice runs. But then we just couldn't keep them off the glass.
Q. Can you tell us a little bit about Arica's injury? And, secondly, you had the same rebounding differential in South Bend with Sam playing. How much was a factor her injury today?
COACH WALZ: It was a huge factor. She's our best defensive rebounder that we have on the team. And they just really controlled the -- their offensive glass the entire night. It wasn't just their post players. Jackie Young really hurt us at important times. We came up -- we switched some defenses and forced them to miss some shots, and then just couldn't come up with a defensive board. That's a dagger. Kills your spirit. Kills your confidence at times. But it's one of the things we've just got to get back to the drawing board. We've got to get some kid's healthy. It's A.C. I'm still trying to figure out, I know
she sprained her ankle in yesterday's game. I'm waiting to get confirmation exactly what it was or what it is. And then we'll get her taken care of and healed and back hopefully in practice in a few days so we can get prepared for the NCAA Tournament.
Q. Bionca, between the combination of Turner and Shepard, just talk about having to try and guard and deal with them for 40 minutes?
BIONCA DUNHAM: It was a battle down there. They crashed the boards. It was hard to try to help and keep boxing them out, keeping them off the glass also. They just got more rebounds than us.
Q. Jeff, looked like Sam was trying to come back and you could see you talking to her a little bit. When did you sort of make the decision to maybe not have her --
COACH WALZ: I talked to her before we started the third quarter. I said if you're going
to go out there you can't limp. And end all, end all, this isn't our final, our major goal that we're trying to get to. And the last thing I wanted was for her to go out there and try to continue to fight through it and then all of a sudden you take a one Grade 1 sprained ankle and turn it into a Grade 3 sprained ankle and now you're out three weeks. She went out there, got a ball, she may have gotten fouled or something. And I think she tried to plant and that's when she looked at me and said, "Coach, I can't go." Which I was proud of her because she's a little stubborn and it wouldn't have surprised me if she tried to keep going. But I wanted to make sure she understood, yeah, we're always trying to win every game we play. But at the same time I wasn't willing to
sacrifice her being able to play in two and a half weeks when the big tournament starts up.
Q. Asia, your final ACC Tournament, but as Coach mentioned a bigger goal ahead, just speak about the NCAA and what you're thinking about that?
ASIA DURR: Yeah, this is one game. This wasn't our final goal. So I think we fought hard at certain times throughout the game. But this is not our final goal. So we just gotta learn from it and continue to push forward.
Q. Jazmine, this is the second time that they've had a pretty dramatic rebounding difference against you. Do you see this as just a bad matchup for this team or is there another issue at stake here?
JAZMINE JONES: We've got to come out with a mindset to chop wood, like our coaches say all the time in practice. We just have to come with a mindset. It wasn't there today. We've just got to get back to it. Q. You've been projected pretty widely as the No. 1
seed in Chicago. Presumably Notre Dame will get that given their proximity. What do you expect now? Do you still think you're a No. 1? If not, what happens?
COACH WALZ: Well, I mean, it's one of those -- I was really surprised when the last reveal came out that we were going to Chicago. I mean, with the fact that UConn was kept in Albany, it only made sense to put Notre Dame and Chicago based on the proximity of them. And for us, at the end of the day, you know, being a 1 seed is great. It's a great honor. It just shows you what your body of work has been throughout the entire season. But wherever they send us, we know we're going to get the opportunity to play the first two at home unless this loss put us to a 5 seed, which I don't think it did. So, I feel pretty confident about that. And then it's one game at a time. I've said it the 12 years I've been here. If you can figure out a way to get to the Sweet 16, it's
anybody's ballgame. They're great teams. And you've just got to play your best that night. And it's the one thing that makes this time of year so exciting is the best team doesn't always win. It's the team that plays the best that night. That's why everybody loves March Madness. It's not a best of seven. In '13, I promise you, we could have played the best of 100 and we may have won that one against Baylor. You've just got to come out and be ready to play from day one. I would be surprised if this would drop us very far, especially with the injuries that we had. But whatever it might be, we're just going to have to embrace it and move forward.
Q. Jeff, this team hasn't lost very much. You have been to a championship game twice after playing UConn in a final that didn't go real well. How much can you share with them about quickly turning the page?
COACH WALZ: Well, yeah, this is the one thing about this ballgame. There were some things that we did well. We shot 49 percent from the field. It wasn't the offensive end of it. We scored. We attacked their man. We were getting layup after layup. But the problem was we couldn't get a rebound. They shot 83 shots to our 66. And the thing about it we both shot the same amount of free throws. Normally when you see something like that, we may have shot like 35 attempts at the freethrow line when you see such a huge discrepancy. But they just kicked our tail on the offensive glass. If you give me 17 more shots at the basket, it's hard to win. And you've got to give them credit for that. They played extremely hard. They attacked that glass. And we just couldn't keep them off of it.
Q. I know obviously defensively was tough for you today, but could you describe how hard it was to defend Shepard and Turner, having them two together inside?
COACH WALZ: Jess, I had the opportunity to work with USA Basketball. And I've just -- I told her when we played up there how impressed I was at the shape she's gotten in. I'm not sure how much she changed her body or what she's lost. But it's remarkable. She gets up and down that floor so much better. She's always had a great touch. The one thing she doesn't do for them that she has is shoot the 3. That's one of the things, when she tried out for a few of the teams that I was part of with USA Basketball, she had a great 3-point shot. But for them, when you've got Turner and Shepard inside, it's almost pick your poison. But we talked about it; you can't let them get two feet in the paint. When they get two feet in the paint they're scoring on you. And there for a little bit in the first half we stopped them from getting two feet in the paint and they missed some shots. So they played so well together, they passed the ball real well.
But I'll say it, I think the key to their entire team is Jackie Young. The kid gets -- I think people might not talk about her as much. I just go back to the Final Four game, I think she went 10-for-10 against UConn in that semifinal game. She just defensively, the way she attacks the glass, she passes the ball. She's the one that when I watch on film she impresses me. She might not make the wow plays as much, but she puts -- she's got a heart and she's a motor that just does not stop.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw and student-athletes Jessica Shepard, Brianna Turner and Jackie Young. Coach, an
opening statement.
COACH MCGRAW: We came in with a goal of bringing the trophy back to South Bend and I thought we played really well in every game of the tournament, offensively
especially. Just a lot of different weapons, a lot of people scoring. Got great performances from these three every single day. I thought we were really steady
on offense and definitely came ready today. I thought that was a huge win for us, and probably gets us to play in Chicago, which was another one of our goals. So we're thrilled with where we are right now.
THE MODERATOR: Questions?
Q. Coach, I'm curious what sort of a message you think this game sends to the other teams across the country who will see the scoring and what you guys did this weekend?
COACH MCGRAW: When you beat ranked teams by as much as we did this weekend, I think it sends a great message. We want to try to set a tone, but it's a new season. Everybody's undefeated. We've got to take care of business every single game. I'm glad we sent a good message. We can enjoy a couple of days off and then get ready to get back to work.
Q. Jessica and Brianna, I believe you guys scored 72 points in the paint today, which is a season high. Can you just talk about that and just the way you two worked together throughout the season and then this game in particular?
JESSICA SHEPARD: I think coming into the game we knew we had a mismatch, I think the guards just did a good job passing the ball inside. I can think of all of them making a great pass in. And obviously getting to play with a great player like Bri makes it really easy. You can just throw it up to the rim and watch her go get it. It's been a lot of fun this season.
BRIANNA TURNER: I think we really took advantage of how they were guarding us. A lot of times they went four guards, so we knew someone would have a mismatch. And also just Jackie taking the ball full court, going in for easy layups. I think we really executed and took what the other team gave us.
Q. Coach, looking back on the two ACC losses in particular, Notre Dame and Miami, what did you learn from those and what did you sort of tell the players about that that got you to where you looked as dominant as you have this tournament?
COACH MCGRAW: I think the first thing was we're coming in as the defending champs and that's something that we've never done with this group. So it was a different attitude. I think the regular season seemed a little less important at times to them because we just were anxious to get to the tournament play. Going to North Carolina, I think that showed us two things: One, we've got to focus and be ready for every
game on the road, which we generally were; but without Jackie, that kind of showed us how important she is to our team. To go to Miami, they're a really good team. Miami's got a great team. Hof's played really well and they did a lot of really good things and we didn't. We didn't shoot the ball well, didn't pass the ball well, didn't do anything well. Our focus was off. I credit both teams, Miami and North Carolina. There's a lot of good times in the ACC. Paris Kea is a terrific player, Hof is a great player. There's a player on every single team. I think it taught us to be ready.
Q. Jackie, one of the things that Coach Walz said watching you guys, you're the player that he worries the most about in terms of how many things you facilitate out on court. Can you talk about that, what you do out there in terms of not just looking for your own offense but everything else you do for the rest of the players?
JACKIE YOUNG: Yeah, I think I'm just really willing to do whatever it takes to help our team win. And whether that's guarding the best player on the other team, rebounding, scoring, passing, whatever that is, I'm willing to do. So I don't know, I think early on I'm just -- for this tournament I think I was just looking to attack early so I could get my teammates open and look for Marina and Arike on the 3, and then have passes for Jess and Bri on the inside. And if I'm scoring they're going to guard me a little bit tighter so I'm able to dish the ball.
Q. Coach, a year ago you guys, everybody was, like, wow, how are they getting through all these injuries. You were sort of the underdog. I think it's the exact opposite this year. And that's a different mentality. Can you just talk about how well your team's handled that sort of pressure to be the defending champ?
COACH MCGRAW: I think it's been kind of a transition for them to learn how to handle that. I think they've done a really good job of that throughout the year. It's just different going into every single game they celebrate when they beat us as if they won the national championship. And you've got to be ready for that. You've got to bring your best game every single night. We're where we should be. I think right now we had a couple of bumps in the road this year. Last year it was just so fun being the underdog. But this year we have the big targets on our back. It will be different heading into the tournament.
really impressive 3 games in the ACCT. ND and L'ville both had 3 games in 3 days and one of them was energetic and the other was dead meat. Don't see anyone beating us. Maybe UConn, that's about it.
Haven't seen Baylor tho, but they don't play the kind of schedule that we do.
LAS VEGAS -- Stanford got a measure of revenge en route to winning another Pac-12 Tournament title.
DiJonai Carrington scored 22 points, and the seventh-ranked Cardinal erased some unpleasant recent history against No. 6 Oregon, beating the Ducks 64-57 on Sunday night.
For the Cardinal, it was their 13th championship of the 18 Pac-12 tournaments. Stanford lost to Oregon last season in the title game, and the Cardinal also were routed by 40 points a month ago by the Ducks -- the worst defeat in Hall of Fame coach Tara VanDerveer's career.
"I think that was something that we had in our minds ever since we lost that game," said Stanford's Alanna Smith, who earned Most Outstanding Player honors for the tournament. "When you take a loss like that, you have no choice but to learn from it. We were happy we got to play Oregon today. We wanted another chance at them."
With the game tied at 51, Carrington made a layup, then stole the ball and drove the length of the court for another lay-in. After Ruthy Hebard made a free throw to get Oregon within 55-52, Kiana Williams hit a 3-pointer from the wing to give the Cardinal their biggest lead of the fourth quarter to that point.
Sabrina Ionescu, who led Oregon with 27 points and 12 rebounds, ended a four-minute field goal drought with a jumper with 1:14 left. She was the only Oregon player to hit a basket for the Ducks in the final eight minutes.
Stanford made all six of its free throws in the final minute to seal the victory. As the final seconds ticked off, the Cardinal players ran to half-court to celebrate.
"The competition we played day in and day out prepared us for today's game," VanDerveer said. "We won with our defense. We came in as the top-ranked defensive team in the Pac-12 and people locked in defensively."
Smith added 20 points and 14 rebounds for the Cardinal.
VanDerveer said after Stanford beat Washington in the semifinals on Saturday night that her team didn't play well offensively against the Ducks in the meeting last month and that they would "battle and play their game" this time.
Stanford (28-4) gave Oregon everything it could handle early on. The Cardinal built a 14-point lead early in the third quarter. It was the largest deficit the Ducks had faced this season. But then the offense went cold and the Ducks (29-4) scored 10 straight points at the start of an 18-3 run and took their first lead of the game on two free throws by Ionescu with 52 seconds left in the third quarter.
The teams traded the lead in the fourth before Carrington took over with 4:02 left.
"I'm a little disappointed with our execution early in the fourth quarter," Oregon coach Kelly Graves said. "This is the time we normally shine. It doesn't derail our goals of doing well in the NCAA Tournament and going a long way. We feel bad now and hopefully will learn from this and go forward."
Stanford got off to a quick start and led 33-24 at the half behind 14 points from Carrington and seven points and nine rebounds from Smith. Ionescu was only bright spot on offense for the Ducks as she had 13 points.
"Honestly we didn't come out and have any fire and they came out and they really wanted to beat us and we were on our heels most of the game," Ionescu said. "We didn't fight back hard enough and long enough to win this game."
STELLAR DEFENSE
Oregon's 57 points were a season low -- five fewer than its previous worst.
"Our defense was outstanding," Smith said. "It was a whole team effort."
TIP-INS
This was the ninth meeting of the top two seeds in the Pac-12 Tournament. The top seed is 7-2. Stanford now has the only two wins by the two-seed, having beaten Oregon State two years ago. ... Stanford is 45-5 in Pac-12 Tournament games.
SIGN OF THE TIMES
Cardinal senior center Shannon Coffee joined the Stanford Dollies and the band to provide a sign-language interpretation of the national anthem. Coffee is in her fifth quarter of American Sign Language. She's been doing it since the team played at UCLA on Feb. 15. The band has been doing it for years.
UP NEXT
Stanford: Will most likely host a first-round NCAA Tournament game.
Oregon: Also should begin the tournament at home.
Some ups and downs to Championship Sunday on the 1-line.
Now the top seeds are Baylor, Notre Dame, UConn, and Mississippi St.
The 2’s: Louisville, Oregon, Stanford, Iowa.
Reflecting the results of Sunday's Games:
- ND #1 takes the bus to Chicago
- MSSt moves up to #1 in Portland
- UL falls from #1 to #2 and goes to Albany but behind CT, a team they beat.
- Stanford beats Ore but Ore stays home while Stanford travels cross country.
- Tennessee gets ESPN's "We've never done a Tournament without them slot."
Not worried about UCONN. The only two teams that scare me are Baylor and Miss St although I think we’re the best team in the country.
I can't for the life of me figure out how Louisville would fall all the way to the 2 line while lsoing to the #1 ranked team RPI wise. I also can't figure out how Stanford beating Oregon wouldn't help them at all. I'm certainly not complaining if they are sent to our region but it doesn't make much sense to me.