Laudermill	Theriot	Havers
----------------------------- 1 2 total Illinois (NR) 33 24 57 NEBRASKA (15) 30 29 59 -----------------------------

Nebraska Coach Connie Yori On the last seven minutes of the game "I think the fans got their money's worth on that one. It probably had to be a fun fans game. Even though we scored in the 50's there was a lot going on. (Assistant Coach) Dayna Finch told me if we could hold them to 57 we could win and she was right on the mark. Thank goodness Natalie (Romeo) hit that shot to put us above 57. Just a game where we had to tough it out. That's the way it's going to have to be in some situations. We don't necessarily have the firepower offensively as we did last year, so we have to be able to grind games out like this and win close games. Probably not always beautiful beyond the terms of scoring, so you have to find the win.

"Tonight we did and the other night we didn't. It's going to come down to the wire in a lot of games. I liked our players' mentality throughout the game, even when we got down. I thought we stayed very positive and we kept playing every possession. That last 10 or 12 minutes of the game, I know we gave up some shots, but I thought defensively, we really tried to grind it out and make them have to wait the shot clock out a lot. They hit some late shot-clock shots, credit to them. But bottom line is you have to make every possession count on both ends and that's what it came down to. You don't get to that position, to have Natalie hit that shot, if you don't grind it out defensively throughout.

"Obviously the foul trouble played a factor throughout the game. We picked up some quick fouls in the first half and that put us in foul trouble but our kids played smart and put us out of foul trouble."

On Natalie Romeo's game-winning three-pointer "Well I was standing right behind her and I thought it was going in. I was excited when she got it because I think she can make that shot. I always say kids who put a lot of time in the gym and work on shooting deserve to makes those shots. That's what Nat does. She put that time in. She is always in the Hendricks Complex on her days off. All summer long she spent a lot of time on her shooting. She didn't start the year making shots for us. But those are the types of shots that those type of kids deserve to make. She deserves to make it because she has been in the gym. Forty-five minutes before our shoot-around today she was in the gym, with some of our other players, getting in some extra shots. You like to see that pay off for those kids that put the time in."

On practicing the corner three "We do a shooting drill basically before every shoot-around day and we get a lot of corner threes. She gets a lot of corner threes with our offense because of the way we run our offense, so she's got that shot a lot. She had two of them against Utah, I think they were both corner threes, but she has gotten that shot, and I believe she is going to make it when she shoots it."

On Natalie Romeo "I think she's getting more confidence and I think that if she wouldn't have been hurt, she would have been playing at a higher level a little earlier for us. You can't control that. She's not a kid that is going to wow you up here (in the press conference), but I think she's developing more confidence, and I think her teammates believe in her. We believe in her. The thing about [Natalie] is we've only seen the tip of the iceberg on what she can do. I just really think she's going to be a really good player for us. Right now she looks like she's a shooter only. She's not. She can do a lot more than just shoot the ball, and we've seen so much zone here lately that that's been more of her role, but she's a really good dribble penetrator, and I think she's a good passer and she's really good in the open floor, but you know teams haven't really pressed us much so she will be somebody that you'll see more and more of her game as she gets going in her career."

On second-half defense against Chatrice White "They ran a couple things we knew they were going to run and we made mistakes on. Finally we guarded basically their ball screen, down screen for her at the top of the key and then the one she hit on the wing, we didn't guard that well. But there was a couple times where she was reasonably well-guarded and she made them. You know it's her homecoming, you kind of expect that and she's a good player and she was a highly recruited player, and we recruited her really hard. She's a kid that is a good player and there's a reason why she's having the freshman year that she's having."

On the Illinois/Nebraska series for the next few years "I think every opponent that you play in the Big Ten is such a challenge. I don't think we made a big deal about it. We said, "Chatrice is coming home," and we said that and obviously we want to guard her well. We don't want to give her 23 points, but it's credit to her. I don't know, I think there's a lot of teams that we play...you get to know teams. Early when you're playing in a new conference, you don't know anyone, they don't know you, you're the nice guy on the block because they've never had to play you before and then all of a sudden there's natural rivalries that develop over the course of playing in a league and playing against each other and having competitive battles."

On Nebraska's plus-14 rebound margin "We're tough. Those two senior forwards Emily [Cady] and Hailie [Sample], they do a great job of rebounding and then we have great contributions. They have 26 rebounds and Illinois had 27. Once those guys get their hands on the ball, they easily secure it and Emily has just been a beast on the glass. You look at her body type and you think, "how does she get that many rebounds" but she's got great hands and she has great tenacity. And Hailie, once she gets her hands on the ball, she ain't giving it up. Those guys are doing a great job in that area. I thought [Tear'a] was a real spark for us for a bit there, too. I thought she played well. We had to have everybody tonight. Allie Havers, huge. Huge by the way."