He'd been struggling and I'm so happy for the lift he gave this team as a senior in a championship game. You couldn't script it better than that. I'm so proud of the way he stepped up in this game.

We had never gone into the championship game having that lack of pressure. This makes it a little bit better. Hopefully it will get us a top 16 seed. Our guys battled so hard. I can't be prouder for a group than those guys.

You never know when it's off?balance. I had a pretty good look at it. The only thing I really questioned was I thought it might hit front rim and bounce back because it was pretty flat.

They switched a lot more on defense, they tried to play a little more of a triangle game and there were things that we kind of prepared for but they used these new things a little bit more. When you have a veteran team like we do with a lot of seniors, you expect them to adapt.

For 45 minutes of basketball, you have two teams that aren't going to give in to each other. It was one of those games where you just hate to see anyone lose. Whenever we play Mount Mercy, it's that type of game. Our teams compete like that.

She was always reminding us that we had a special opportunity to turn what we've learned at the academy into success. She taught us to dream big, to play big, to want big things in our lives.