Nebraska Player Quotes

#16 Nebraska 94, #8 Penn State 74
Monday, Feb. 24, 2014
Pinnacle Bank Arena (Lincoln, Neb.)

Jordan Hooper
6-2, Senior, Forward
On if she's seen Tear'a Laudermill shoot like that in practice
"Yeah, we know she can shoot and her confidence level -- and the bigness of the game and stuff like that -- she was ready for tonight."

On how she would describe that first half
"It was really good (laughs).  That’s how I'd describe it. And I don’t know how we could’ve played, like Coach (Connie Yori) said in our team huddle just now, she doesn’t know how we could play much better on offense.  I mean, there are all kinds of things we could probably do differently on defense and here and there, but I thought we did pretty well in that area tonight, too."

On feeling like the team was locked-in for this game
"I've kind of felt that all week.  Ever since the off day, I felt that we were definitely ready for this.  We came in, we were focused, the coaches had a great gameplan.  We just buckled down and we did it."

On how the past few games against Penn State motivated the team
 "It was our time.  It was our turn.  Like I said, we prepared really well for them and we knew exactly what to expect.  We knew exactly what they were going to try and do to us and we took it away from them."

On going head-to-head with Maggie Lucas
"She's a great player.  I think it's really fun to actually go against people that are that great.  You have to stop them because they can make or break the game, and I think that's really cool.  I mean, it wasn’t me at all, it was Hailie (Sample) and the rest of the team that definitely held to her however many points she had, so I credit them for all that.  I didn’t really do anything on her exactly.  But I think that’s really awesome that she's that great and that she can impact a game that much."

Tear'a Laudermill
5-9, Junior, Guard

On if she felt she had it going offensively from the start
"I mean, it started before that. Our hype just started way before that.  We knew this was a huge game and we knew we had to come out and just do well, so we were already hyped."

On if she felt she was going to have a big night after the first basket
"I think that’s what set it off.  That first three, I was like "Oh my gosh," and then I found out I was hot and kept shooting.  My teammates found me and it was on."

On if she could have dreamed of a better shooting performance
"I mean, anything's possible.  I have great teammates and great teammates find you, so anything's possible.  I'm thankful for my teammates and the coaches, really blessed."

On the gameplan going into the game on defending Maggie Lucas
"Stop her from getting hot, just don’t let her catch the ball. The main thing, don’t let Maggie Lucas catch the ball."

On what was going through her head when she was hitting all of those threes
"I don’t even know, I was just like, "What?  Did that just go in?  I'm hot right now!  Is this real life?"  I just kept shooting. Coach gave me the green light.  I was like "OK, shoot the ball."  But like I said, it wasn’t for my teammates that found me, it wouldn’t have happened."

On emotion of her brother watching her play in college for the first time
"Yeah, that just added to it.  Before the game, about a couple hours before the game, they actually surprised me, so I had no idea he was coming.  And I was crying like, "Are you ever going to come to a game?" and they just surprised me.  And I was like "Oh my goodness, it's on and cracking now!  Let's go!"