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#22 Nebraska 70, Wisconsin 63
Pinnacle Bank Arena (Lincoln, Neb.)
Sunday, Feb. 15, 2015
Nebraska Coach Connie Yori
Opening Statement
“Well I thought this was a really critical game for us, not just because we had lost three straight, but because of what we have coming up. We’re fighting for an NCAA Tournament game. I think Wisconsin is a team that has gotten better as the season has gone on. They haven’t necessarily turned it into as many wins as they would have liked, but they have a nice team. We knew this wasn’t going to be easy.
I thought our seniors were really urgent. I thought that was a big part of that game. They knew the importance of the game and they played like seniors. They played with a passion. They have a drive to get this done. Hailie (Sample) came out and played, though she was only at 70 percent capacity coming off a sprained ankle. She got nine treatments and didn’t do much the last two days. I think our seniors just understood how urgent this was. It was good to see Nat (Natalie Romeo) play on both sides. She did a lot of good things for us. Brandi (Jeffery) did really well defensively. I thought she was a playmaker on the defensive end in terms of bothering the post and doubling. Their post game didn’t hurt us like it did the last time we played them, largely because our guards did a good job of keeping it out. When most people talk about Wisconsin they don’t necessarily start talking about their post, but that was a mismatch advantage they had on us. I thought we did a good job there.
(Nicole) Bauman has been on fire lately. Yes, she made shots, but we didn’t give her as many looks as maybe we could have. That was really important. I thought we did a better job on Bauman in the second half. I thought at times we were pretty efficient offensively, which is good. Playing our fourth game without Rachel (Theriot), I think that’s what you’re going to see. Hopefully improvement offensively in terms of flow and what we’re looking for without our starting point guard out there.”
On if freshman guard Natalie Romeo is showing she can do more than just hit threes
“Well early she got to the basket and took advantage of that off the dribble. And in both halves she got a lot of good cuts to the basket. We did a good job. I mean Tee (Tear’a Laudermill) had seven assists, so she did a good job of helping Natalie get to the rim. Natalie has got a lot more to the game than I think we’ve really seen. She’s going to be a really good player for us. She’s not just a spot up shooter and I think she has a lot going for her career.”
On how the freshman have responded to the absence of junior guard Rachel Theriot
“Well, they’re freshmen. Natalie has been up and down. The one thing is with her is we said even when you’re not making shots, you still have to do other things for us. You have to play defense. You have to have more of a tough-minded nature. And I thought it was good to see her make shots early. You know it’s very typical of young players when they struggle offensively to let up defensively. I think Nat has done that a little too much and we’ve addressed that. You can always play defense, even if things aren’t going well on the offensive end, you can always play defense. That really shouldn’t change anything on the defensive end. But that’s typical of young players to not play with as much confidence defensively when things aren’t going well offensively. She made shots and improved today. I hope she can continue to do that even when things don’t go well offensively.
As far as Jasmine (Cincore) goes, we tell all of our freshmen to be ready and to take advantage of opportunities when they are being presented to you. We tell all our players in our program that. Take advantage of opportunities and continue to get better. Seize opportunites. That doesn’t mean you have to score a ton of points, it just means you have to play within yourself. And that’s what Jas did. She hits an open shot. She came in to guard (Cayla) McMorris. She came in and did a good job on her. Those are moments they really want to seize because that then turns into more minutes for these kids. And that grows into confidence for them. It grows into confidence for us.”