Lou Lopez Senechal and Dorka Juhasz display their emotions after Sweet 16 loss | UConn Post Game

Nobody wanted the ball. Nobody really, you know, was trying to get it open and press that break. And obviously, but, you know, not even just the press, but I felt like, you know, they were tougher than us. They rebounded us. They got the loose balls, you know, they were just tougher with the ball. And that's on us, you know, we got up and a good lead in the first quarter, but, you know, I think we just got too comfortable in that. And obviously after that, we got uncomfortable just there wasn't one person on the court that was there to just, you know, stop up and just say, get the team together and in Hado'on.

We couldn't really, you know, break that, but it's throughout the whole game. I mean, they, we got to give credit to them because they did an amazing job of, you know, pressing us and making us uncomfortable. And, you know, they played with a lot of confidence and, you know, as they should in a sweet 16 game. And we just, we didn't, we didn't answer with our game, but, you know, I think we did an execute. We were just, oh no, you know, it's hard to really explain it. I mean, I could say so much about this team. I really could say a lot about this team and what we've done this year.

And no matter what happened tonight, you know, I wouldn't want to be anyone else. And I wouldn't have done it when anyone else. It was, I'm very grateful, you know, that coach and everyone gave me this opportunity to be here this year and compete at this level. It's never something that I would, you know, thought one day in my life. And it's just very shock right now. And like Dorca said, it's a lot of credit to Ohio State because they played a great game, but I'm going to live here with many more positive memories than negative, that's for sure. I think I'm just going to have to move on at some point, but I've had, you know, one of my best years of my life here and that's credit to everyone.

You can't stop all the teammates, Dorca, who's been the same situation as me. It's really a blessing for me to have had that fifth year and just very grateful for this opportunity. They seem to just have a foot on the gas the entire time. Is that what it felt like on the floor? Yeah, I mean, definitely. I think, you know, if you obviously followed Ohio State throughout the whole season, you know, there were a lot of times they were obviously down by a lot. And then, you know, came out in the third quarter and just completely changed the game. And, you know, it's expected.

I mean, it's a sweet 16 game and, you know, it's we don't go home and we knew they're not going to give up and they're not going to just put their hands up and, you know, see that where you come in and just kind of shy away from that. So obviously at the half time, you know, just, we just had to, you know, come to a conclusion that we got to be better, obviously, in the past, just trying to find and trying to fight, you know, being down 10. And, and again, I mean, they have, you know, amazing players. They're a very good, well-coached team as well. So it's just a lot of times I felt like, you know, even though they were pressuring us, we kind of just shot each other on the foot and ourselves in the foot with eternal words, the bad decision, the rush shots that we made. And we really didn't play like ourselves or like our best selves. But at the end of the day, you know, it's, it was a sweet 16 game.

So we knew they're going to come out and they're fighting for their lives. And it's kind of like all teams do that. So, and we were just not able to respond, unfortunately. Lou, what happened, you know, when you're, when your knee buckled, were you afraid that you weren't going to be able to come back? And just what did you channel to play so well once you came back in the game? Yeah, I didn't really know exactly what was happening. But, you know, I think that, it was hurting, but I, you know, realized that it's like Dorcas said, we don't go home. And that it was, you know, one of my, maybe you're going to be one of my last games in my college career. So I just, you know, tried to push through.

It's, there's not, you know, moments like that that can happen again, even if we would have one, you know, it's only one game at a time. And I think that I realized that I could potentially just have 20 more minutes in my college career. And so I just, just try to, you know, push through and come back and not really think about it. And it became more of a mental part, you know, to just get over it and try to do the best I can. As Lou said, I'm in the friendships, the, all the good memories, you know, all the ups and downs, there was always somebody to, you know, pick us up, you know, getting through what we went through. Obviously this past two years, it's definitely going to be a lot of positive feelings, you know, a lot of memories. Obviously it's very upsetting how we ended a college career in this season.

Just, you know, great. This is not what we obviously prepare for, but, you know, I think we don't really have a lot of negative stuff that we're going to pick away from this because we've given so much from, we got so much from this, you know, program from coach, all the coaches are teammates. So we're definitely very grateful. But it's just that obviously that it ended like this, but, you know, we're still going to be in contact with them, our teammates, wherever we go, our teammates wherever we end up. And yeah.

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