April 2, 2005

Baylor Guard Chameka Scott
On the excitement of making the Final Four:
"This is amazing. This is what you work so hard for all season, and not even this season but since I got here. It's something you look forward to. It's a lot to take in all at once, but I've been taking it one day at a time and really try to experience it and get the most out of it."

On being the underdog of the Final Four:
"You think it would be weird as an underdog, but I think we play that role pretty well. We spent two seasons playing like that, so it's fun to go back having the pressure lifted off your shoulders. You try and make the best of the situation. There's nothing you can really do about it. A seed is a seed. A number is a number. The bottom line is whoever is going to make plays and come up big in the end is going to win."

On what it will take to beat LSU:
"It's going to take an unbelievable amount of focus and determination. We've got the motivation to want to go and win this game. We're going to have to execute and play the scouting report to the best of our abilities... If they win this game tomorrow, we want to say that they absolutely played their heart out and that's why they won and they deserved it. As long as we don't give it to him, I think we'll leave here with a good experience."

On what the team learned from playing LSU in the first game of the season:
"We learned a lot from that game, not just from just that game but it carried on throughout the whole season. We learned that we need to be more aggressive. We learned how to play more as a team. The second half of that game, I think, taught us more than last season alone did. We had to find ourselves and understand individual roles on the team and who to get the ball to in clutch situations... We took so much from that game and I think it's very ironic and kind of funny that we ended up playing them again."

Baylor Forward Emily Niemann
On making the Final Four:
"It is very exciting and it's an honor. I think the thing makes it really special for me is that I love my teammates. They are incredible girls. It's really been fun making the journey with them. We started working towards this in the summertime... It's been a heck of a journey and a heck of a ride. I absolutely love these girls and there's nobody else I rather be doing it with."

On what she expects from tomorrow's game:
"We just want to do what we do well. We want to control the tempo of the game and control the flow and make them play Baylor basketball instead of us playing their game. Our expectations are that they are going to come out ready to go, but we are too. It's going to be intense... We expect a great game and we're looking forward to it and we'll be ready for it."

On stopping LSU's Seimone Augustus:
"She is a great player and LSU is a great basketball team, but so are we. We're not afraid of any person on that team. It's going to take more than just one player to beat Baylor. We're not just five, we're 15 deep. Everybody has a part and everybody plays a role. That's why we've been so successful because there is no one person that holds this thing together. We're a team. Seimone Augustus and her team are going up against us, so it's not going to be like us against her."

On building off the early-season loss to LSU:
"That was our first game of the season and, making no excuses, we didn't have a feel for each other yet. That was a heck of a first game to play and start the season off with. We've grown a lot, we've changed a lot. We've learned a lot from that game... I'm not sure we'd be where we are right now had we not lost a couple of games that we did. We definitely learned from it and hopefully we pull it off tomorrow."