2013 Big West Tournament Bracket (PDF)

2013 Big West Tournament

Irvine, Calif. Big West Tournament Quarterfinals- Bren Events Center

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Session 2, Game 3: No. 8 Cal State Fullerton 66, No. 3 Hawai'i 51

 

• Win tonight clinches Fullerton's first trip to the Big West Tournament's semifinal round since the 2009 season 

 

• Titans improve to 6-0 on the season when scoring between 60-70 points

 

• Fullerton improves to 2-0 all-time vs. Hawai'i in Big West Tournament play

 

• The Titans' 57.1 percent shooting in the second half is the highest shooting percentage Fullerton has recorded since it connected for a 60 percent clip during the second half vs. UC Riverside on Jan. 8, 2011.

 

• Tonight was the most points Fullerton has scored since the Titans put up 83 points vs. Hawai'i on Jan. 3, 2013 in the conference opener (20 games ago)

 

Cal State Fullerton Head Coach Marcia Foster

 

Opening Statement

 

"I'm glad to be sitting up here again as a winner. The kids played hard and Hawai'i is a tough, physical team. It came down to us taking shots. This is some of the best shooting we've done all year long, we shot 57 percent from the field, and for us, we've struggled to get to 30 percent from the field sometimes this season. I have a lot of respect for Hawai'i, but I am so proud of the effort from our players tonight. Mya (Olivier) led us with 17 points tonight, which is huge. A lot of them have figured out that they're talented players and that they can do more. You know how much this means to us at this time. The victory is awesome."

On getting through the initial weeks after assistant coach Monica Quan's death

 

"The depth of sorrow that existed initially, especially the week and the first couple of weeks after, it was so heavy. It was just hard to function. I think of the lessons we got to learn, there's going to be stuff that happens in life, but you have to move forward. You can stop for a second, and that's what we did, but you have to go forward. There's not a better way to honor Monica than to play and win. If tonight we played our best and Hawai'i won, we could walk away and be proud, but we are finding different ways to honor her."

On stopping Hawai'i

 

"We try to play disciplined in the zone defense. They ran a lot of their man offense against us last time and we got stuck playing people we didn't need to play on the perimeter. (Kamilah) Martin hurt us anyway, but we were just trying to limit her touches. She's a beast. The strategy was just to do our job, individually and collectively. We gave up two threes when we started the game, and that wasn't what we were trying to do. We needed to execute."

On facing Pacific

 

"Pacific is a team where you have to be in the game from the beginning. We've played them tough in stretches, but we didn't come out from the beginning. All we want to do is stay in the game. We've struggled because we've gone down early. Pacific has shooters, they're physical and they run the floor well. We're going to have our hands full, we need to stay in the game and not let it get out of hand. I'll work to keep us in the game so that if we start to struggle at all I'll use my timeouts."

On the atmosphere tonight

 

"Hawai'i has a lot of fans. They have a lot of support. It was exciting tonight, but I didn't really notice the atmosphere to tell you the truth, I just know they travel well.

Cal State Fullerton Junior Forward Mya Olivier

 

On playing without assistant coach Monica Quan

 

"We keep her in our hearts and play hard for her. On our Shirts it says 'Motivation', she motivates us to play hard."

Addressing first half injury

 

"My shin started cramping, I had a dead leg. It's sore, but I'll get through it."

On advancing to the semifinals

 

"We're super excited. On the drive down here we drove by the Honda Center and I was just imagining what it would be like to walk though the players' door."

Cal State Fullerton Sophomore Guard Chante Miles

 

On playing without assistant coach Monica Quan

"We knew we had to keep walking, and keep walking together. The season doesn't stop so we had to keep playing. Monica would have loved to see us just do what we do."

On her play tonight

"I've been injured for a little while and I'm just getting myself back to being 'me'. Just playing good D. Good skills."

On Tailer Butler's performance

 

"Tailer has been struggling the past few games and its great to see her come out of her shell. It was a good addition to our team and we needed it. We are very proud of her and it helped us win tonight."