TCU basketball players Sedona Prince and Agnes Emma-Nnopu spoke with the media following a 59-49 win over Houston. Prince, who returned from a finger injury, scored 15 points and grabbed six rebounds. Emma-Nnopu had 13 points and 12 rebounds.
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00:00 All right, well your reward for choosing basketball over baseball is you get the first interview
00:09 with Sedona back and then our double-double machine Agnes.
00:12 So questions in the room for these two.
00:15 Sedona, how did it feel to be back out on the court?
00:17 It felt great.
00:18 I really miss playing with the girls so much.
00:21 I just miss, you know, being out there competing, running around, you know, playing this sport
00:26 that I love, but it also was a little bit, you know, getting the nerves out and shaking
00:33 the rust off, that's for sure.
00:34 But yeah, it was fun.
00:35 I really missed it.
00:36 I was going to say, it looked like in the first quarter, just maybe looked like you
00:39 were just kind of trying to get your foot in a little bit.
00:41 Yeah, yeah.
00:42 I mean, just honestly, you know, I was getting used to playing against, you know, defenders
00:48 guarding me, which I've been able to do it in seven weeks.
00:53 And so, you know, being able to like play and just getting in the rhythm and stuff.
00:57 And yeah, I was really nervous with my hand and stuff, and I just didn't know what it
01:02 was going to be like.
01:03 And once I got to the first, you know, the first quarter, I was like, "Okay, I'm ready."
01:08 Agnes, just talk about having her back on the court.
01:11 Yeah.
01:12 It's awesome having Sedona.
01:13 Obviously, like she's just a presence, like on defense, on offense.
01:17 I think just having her out there, it was sort of, I think, even towards the end of
01:21 that game where it was getting a little bit closer, there wasn't really any sort of stress
01:24 in terms of like, "Okay, we're out of this," or anything like that.
01:28 Yeah.
01:29 Well, and you had a double-double, 13 points, 12 rebounds.
01:32 I mean, it seems like you have a nose for the ball when it comes to rebounding.
01:36 Just for you, what goes into rebounding for you?
01:39 I mean, just like wanting to get my team extra possessions.
01:43 I feel like, especially with the lineup we have now, like we have Sedona, who's an
01:47 incredible rebounder.
01:48 O'Leary is an incredible rebounder, so I think they put a lot of pressure on the defense
01:52 off the box, so that allows me to be able to get loose balls handed out.
01:56 Yeah.
01:57 And that second quarter in particular, you guys kind of got something going on offense.
02:02 What, to you guys, felt different about the second quarter than maybe some of the other
02:05 times in the game where the offense wasn't going quite as well?
02:08 I just feel like we took a big deep breath.
02:11 And once we started just getting a posure and just taking the ball aggressively on the
02:16 court, and just knowing that, being confident with the ball, we were able to get a lot of
02:21 the shots that we wanted, which was awesome.
02:23 Yeah, I would say exactly the same thing.
02:25 We relaxed after the first five minutes and were able to get whatever we wanted.
02:29 Did Houston's pressure maybe get to you guys just a little bit because they forced 20-some
02:34 odd turnovers?
02:35 Did you all feel their pressure a little bit?
02:37 I would say somewhat.
02:39 The press wasn't really the issue.
02:41 I think we were able to, early in the game, we were able to break the press.
02:43 I think once we got into the half court, we just needed to take a second and be like,
02:47 "Okay, we can really get whatever we want."
02:49 And I think we didn't do that early, and then somewhat in the third quarter.
02:53 So I think once we sort of took that deep breath, we were good.
02:56 You guys are on a 3-game winning streak right now.
02:59 That hasn't happened in Big 12 play for this program for a while.
03:03 Two of those were on the road.
03:05 How good did it feel to get some road wins and then come back home and get a win as well?
03:10 Well, MC always talks about how road wins are difficult, regardless of the opponent.
03:16 So I think for us, to be able to pull those two together and have probably our best eight
03:20 minutes defensively on the road, I think that just sort of brought us some momentum coming
03:25 to the last two home games.
03:27 And saying that, we know that we can't really relax just because we're playing at home.
03:31 So I think just continuing to build, it's tournament time coming up after this.
03:35 Talk a little about Una's play.
03:37 She's kind of in the point guard ever since Jadon's gone out.
03:41 Her turnover issue is really good.
03:43 Just talk about the way she plays and facilitates.
03:46 Una's matured so much and grown so much by the time--from the beginning of the year to
03:51 now, she's just so much more of a complete player.
03:56 And that confident point guard that we need to bring it on the floor and get our offense
03:59 started, and she's been doing that.
04:01 She really, really stepped up in that position that we lost Jadon.
04:05 So she's been working so hard and it's been paying off because she's been leading this team.
04:10 I think that's the same thing.
04:12 I feel like, especially comparing the first Houston game to this one, Una breaking the
04:17 press is nine and eight.
04:19 Yeah.
04:20 Well, it felt like you guys handled the press better.
04:24 Does it just feel like experience and growth over the last several games kind of helped
04:28 with that?
04:29 Yeah, definitely.
04:30 I'd say that.
04:31 We worked on it during practice the last week.
04:33 Yeah.
04:36 Sydney Harris is another one.
04:37 She's been putting up a lot of double digit scoring games, which is coming in and knocking
04:41 it three.
04:42 How much does it help to have someone like her out there on the court with you guys?
04:45 It's big time.
04:46 I feel like Syd is getting ready and staying ready.
04:49 So I think with her coming in, she's someone we know, like, OK, we need a three-pointer.
04:53 Syd is the one to knock it down.
04:56 She also brings in so much energy.
04:58 When she makes a bucket, everyone gets lit.
05:01 She's super hyped.
05:02 And so that's also a big thing we should add to our team.
05:06 You guys have two games left before the Big 12 tournament.
05:09 What's kind of the message or your focus?
05:11 Where are you guys' mindset right now?
05:17 We want to win.
05:20 We want to have momentum going into the Big 12 tournament, but try our hardest and learn
05:24 and grow and take every game.
05:27 It's a learning lesson.
05:29 Be the best team we can be and go out and play against ourselves and just take it.
05:36 We want to win.
05:41 You guys score a bunch of points, but you held them to 27% shooting plus 23% rebounding.
05:49 Is it defending first with you guys?
05:53 I mean, I'm asking you guys because you score a lot of points, but you've got to defend
05:56 to win.
05:57 Tonight was amazing.
05:59 I think this game, our offense wasn't really fueling us.
06:02 I think for us, across the span of Big 12 play, our defense has grown incredibly.
06:07 Especially the guard defense.
06:09 So I think being able to walk into that when maybe offense wasn't going our way was something
06:13 that we were focusing on.
06:15 The girls have stepped up like crazy.
06:19 Our defense has gotten so much better.
06:21 And you can see we can defend really, really well now.
06:26 So now that we know that we have a great offensive game and they've been working so hard and
06:31 now we have an incredible defense, now it's, uh-oh, we're the full package.
06:37 What did Mark tell you guys after the game?
06:39 I know it was about Road Warriors on the road, but is there anything different he said going
06:47 in after the game when you guys won?
06:52 Just continue to keep the foot on the pedal and don't take the left foot.
06:57 Yeah.
06:58 Just good one.
06:59 It's a win.
07:00 Yeah.
07:01 It wasn't pretty basketball, but we scrapped that one.
07:04 It's all right.
07:06 So Dana, you mentioned this team has grown so much since conference play started, but
07:11 for you coming onto this team, did it feel like a little bit of a different team just
07:16 from the way things have gone?
07:18 Yeah, for sure.
07:19 Absolutely.
07:20 Yes, absolutely.
07:21 It feels like the girls have a bit of relief because they can just run to the court and
07:27 know that it's getting taken up.
07:28 And same with defense too.
07:30 We have so much more help inside the game.
07:33 There's so many little things in basketball that we have improved so much in.
07:37 And so, yeah, this team is really, really fun to play with.
07:41 I'm really excited to continue the year.
07:44 Anything else for these two?
07:46 All right.
07:47 Thank you guys.
07:48 We'll see you Wednesday.
07:49 Thank you.