Theriot	Sample	Jeffery
----------------------------- 1 2 total Purdue (NR) 24 35 59 NEBRASKA (16) 33 36 69 -----------------------------

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."

Purdue Coach Sharon Versyp Postgame Quotes

Opening Statement

"Nebraska played a really solid game today, we knew that we will always have battles between the programs. It's great they have their depth back, their players that did come in made a big impact for them. That is what you have to do in the Big Ten. When players come off the bench, Chandler Smith came in and knocked down the three, and hat's off to them, when you start to get deeper into the Big Ten, you have to find a way to score."

On turnovers, difference between halves "We had a lot of young players making mistakes early. The first half is what hurt us. During that stretch, the type of turnovers-when you have 19 points off of those turnovers, the difference was 15 in the first half. That is a big difference. It is hard to get back into transition when you are throwing the ball to the other team."

On what NU did to slow down Whitney Bays "They were just sagging off of our guards daring them to shoot the ball, so they had one in front of her and one behind her. We always had to be setting up, because they were making shots or moving the ball in transition. The second half, we were able to push the ball a little bit more so we had more openings. We just moved better in the second half, and Whitney wasn't always posting up down low, she was going to the short corner too, so she changed what she was doing and obviously we adjusted to how they were playing."

Players Quotes

Hailie Sample

On what it's like to finally win one against Purdue "Well I a mean technically it's our second time beating Purdue, but it's really nice, and it's nice to finally get one since we haven't gotten one in the past couple of years. We always have battles with them, so it's good to come out on the winning side this time."

On what they key was to coming out on the winning side "We had to really key in on their top scorers and make sure that we were boxing out and not giving them a whole lot of second-chance points or transition points."

On slowing down Purdue's Whitney Bays late in the game "It's pretty much just stay in between her and the basket and don't give her an easy shot. And then trusting my teammates and knowing that they are going to be there if she does drive on me and they're going to help."

On guarding Purdue's best player "It's always exciting whenever I get to guard another team's best player. It's always a fun challenge. It's definitely different though because I spent three years as a guard and now I'm a post player. It's a whole different ball game down there. It's fun, it's challenging."

On the ways changing positions is challenging and fun "Just because I'm under-sized, I'm smaller. So I have to play smarter and that challenges me to think more. I think that's fun, learning more about the game."

On Chandler Smith's big plays in the game "Chandler came in and made plays when we needed her to make plays. Her three was a big jump-start and her layup, too. She just came in and proved that even though she has been hurt she's ready to come back and be an impact for us."

On if Chandler sees the court well as a freshman "Yeah, I think so. She reads things pretty well and she understands the game pretty well.

On how much fun they had during the game "Yeah it's pretty encouraging to know we have a little bit more depth now and we can go to our bench. It's not draining. Now it's like, we can get breathers and everybody can be excited and have more energy because we can get breathers."

Rachel Theriot

On what it says about Sample being able to switch to post player "I think it's just good to adapt to different things and take things that are thrown at you. Hailie has definitely done that the best and continues to do it. I mean everyone does it in general, but Hailie has really stepped out and really shown it."

On areas that she feels the team is playing better "I think in general we just have to keep doing the little things. I think that is what has really gotten in the way for us, maybe in Big Ten. Especially now I think maybe we're more under-sized and being more physical and boxing out is probably a big key and taking care of the ball. Just the little things we've done just to do better and keep improving in them."

On what it was like in the last five minutes when things seemed to be going right "I mean shots aren't going to fall all of the time and it's just being confident and keep shooting the ball, as coaches would say. The rest of it will go and in the end shots weren't falling obviously but getting to the line helps and is a strong point for me.

On if her three-pointer was nice jump-starter "It always helps to make a shot."