We said amongst the coaches that the monkey was off our back Tuesday.

It was a blur to me. I saw her take it down the lane and said this is as good a look as we can get.

Getting this far is a great boost for this program. We need to get stronger and keep working on fundamentals, and if we can, we can come back and take another shot at this.

They were closing down on Jackie (Albrecht) on the inside and that's our strong point. We were trying to force it inside to her sometimes.

Honestly, I don't think (big-game experience) was a part of it. We garnered more and more confidence in every tournament game we played. The effort was there, and not to make excuses, but I think we were a little low on gas and fighting a couple little injuries and had to change a few things that we do.

I'm excited as all get-out for these girls. I'm not sure it's sunk in yet, but I had goose bumps in the last eight seconds.