Nebraska Coach Connie Yori Postgame Quotes

#16 Nebraska 69, Purdue 59
Monday, Jan. 15, 2015
Pinnacle Bank Arena (Lincoln, Neb.)

Nebraska Head Coach Connie Yori

Opening Statement
“It was a pretty typical Purdue-Nebraska women’s basketball game. It’s full of a lot of important possessions.  Both teams are pretty tough-minded. It was good to get our monkey off our back. They’ve had our number in the past. I thought our upperclassmen played with a lot of passion, not saying they wouldn’t have anyway. I thought Hailie (Sample) did a good job on (Whitney) Bays and perimeter. Purdue was obviously trying to get the ball inside. Sometimes the double-team came and sometimes it didn’t. They did a good job of making adjustments I thought in the second half. They are a really well-coached team. We had a number of players who made big baskets and made big plays for us. Every possession matters in games like these, and it’s not easy to win in this league. It’s the number one RPI league in the country and it’s not easy to beat anyone whether it’s home or away. I’m really happy for the win but the unfortunate thing in this league is you don’t get a lot of time to celebrate because you got one coming right back up.”

On senior Hailie Sample’s performance
“She played great. That’s Hailie Sample playing some of her best basketball right there. She likes challenges on the defensive end, and she did a good job of cutting and making plays. We’ve played them enough to know what they were going to do on her, and she took it upon herself to say ‘this is what I have to do to be effective offensively.’ We needed her on the floor to guard (Whitney) Bays and what she gave us on offense was a huge plus.”

On freshman Chandler Smith’s performance
“She has kind of the same game as Rachel (Theriot) has but obviously not as advanced because of her age. She’s hardly practiced with our starters.”

On feelings toward Nebraska's performance
“We definitely have more options on the perimeter than we did at Minnesota when we had our three starting guards and a freshman walk-on. That puts some limits on what you can do. You’ve got to get production out of some kids. You can’t play these kids and run them into the ground for 40 minutes. We think we have a nice freshman class and unfortunately they just haven’t been able to be on the floor because of their injuries and illness.”

On forcing turnovers
“We won the battle of turnovers. Possession basketball. Rebounds and turnovers. They outrebounded us by six. We turned them over by nine, so we won the battle of possessions. We haven’t been a team that has turned opponents over here the last couple of years. We’ve been a little softer defensively.”