Post-Game Quotes: Nebraska

MSU Head Coach Suzy Merchant

On the grit the team showed to win the game after trailing for 32 minutes…
Yes, well prior to that, we had been leading almost every game and weren't able to finish them. It was different being on the other side, but I liked how it ended. Maybe that should be our trend in the future. I thought our kids fought and played hard. We were down significant seniors and leadership, we didn't have Shay (Colley) and we might not have her for a period of time. Coco (Gaines) was down and that's another post player that has a lot of experience in the league. So, when you look out there you really have a lot of kids, with the exception of Taryn (McCutcheon) and (Nia) Clouden, one's a sophomore and one's a senior. You had a lot of inexperienced and young kids out there. But at the same time, I thought they did a really good job at playing the role they needed to, they were engaged in our defensive game plan and offensively, we shared the ball.

On how important it was to win a game that went down to the wire…
Yeah, some of that is scheduling which is my fault a little bit. We've played five of the teams we lost to. We beat Notre Dame, but that was on the road too. So, Florida State is a top-10 team on the road. We had LSU and Kansas State on the road at a neutral site. Then you turn around and play Syracuse and West Virginia back-to-back. All of those teams are in the top-25, so they were very good opponents. It would've been nice to have maybe done a better job of spacing them out. But, I really thought we would get the ACC Challenge game at home, so I didn't think we'd have to travel. That really kind of got us because we went to the Bahamas, then three days later we went to Florida State, then came back, had exams and played a game, then went back down to Florida. So we had a lot of travel time and we need to look at that and get a lot more home games next year. We walked into the Breslin and I almost forgot what it was like to even be here. We need to do better and have more home games next year. Plus, we'll be really young.

On how the team was able to bounce back the second half, specifically Clouden and McCutcheon…
We need those kids to play well, and Clouden has probably been the most consistent, top to bottom, in terms of scoring for us every night. Taryn's effort is always there, but sometimes the ball doesn't bounce her way. I do think we need those two; they're our best guards. If you're going to be a good team, your All-Conference backcourt needs to lead you and be consistent in their effort - Not just how hard you play, but production as well. It was good to see both of them come out and get to the free-throw line and find different ways to score.

On Tory Ozment's performance…
She played very well, I mean she knocked down that big three too. Going to the free-throw line… I mean we'd been there once this year and had free-throws to send us to OT, and we didn't make them. I know that's in the back of everyone's mind. It was good to see her have the confidence to knock them down and give us a chance. I felt good; I felt that Nebraska looked a little tired at times and our full-court pressure bothered them and got them out of their offensive flow a bit. I was hoping that we could get it there because we were playing well. Tory is like a long guard first of all who can also play the 4 for us which she's done. She's more of a natural 3 than a 4. But the fact that you can have someone out there who can knock down a shot or you need someone who's a little bit more perimeter defensive based. I think she does a good job of rebounding and boxing people out. She's by far my best charge taker, I mean she'll take charges in shoot-around. The kid knows how to play, she played for a great high school program down in Buford, Georgia; Gene Dern does an amazing job. She's smart and knows how to play. She has a little bit of everything in her bag. It's fun to see kids like that step up, take the reins, show that growth and build that confidence for the next game.

On Moira Joiner's performance today…
Mo was 3-4 from behind the arc, she really knocked them down. She had that one really big three that kind of got us a little separation. Mo competes, is in denial, gets on loose balls, boxes people out, she knows the scouting report inside and out and she can play the 1, 2 or 3. She's just a kid that you normally don't see in a true freshman and she plays because of that. When you look at Mo, she's the ultimate competitor, she hates to lose and that last game kind of got to her. She was not going to have that happen today and she played so hard. I mean that's one thing you can always count on Mo to play her heart out. We need that, we need kids who are willing to lay it on the line like that. It was also just great to see her be productive while she was doing it.

Players Mentioned

Moira Joiner

Tory Ozment

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