Postgame Quotes: Lady Vols 86, Vanderbilt 76

Tennessee Head Coach Holly Warlick

Opening statement:
"(I'm) really, really proud of our players coming off the bench. They stepped up, and that's why we talk a lot about our team and being ready. They did a great job. Cheridene and Annie (Anastasia Hayes) were just solid. We got the ball inside. Mercedes had a great game. She should. We should have pounded the ball inside, and we did. We turned our defense up the fourth quarter. Why we waited, I don't know. When our backs were against the wall, we did some great things on defense that gave us a lot of energy."

On what improvements the team needs to make:
"We have to take care of the ball. When you turn it over, that's an opportunity for us not to have an offensive possession. Tonight, we were making it difficult when we should have been making easy passes. We have to take care of the ball, number one. Number two, we have to play better defense from the start. We have been doing that. The last week and a half, we have probably had good practices, not great. I think we saw a reflection of us not staying focused. They understand. The defense is going to be key for us. We rebounded great. We rebound the ball outstanding. You can't give up ten threes, and you can't send people to the free-throw line. You have to be mindful of who you're guarding and how we need to defend individuals."

On the challenge of Vanderbilt and the tough road ahead:
"We did not consider Vanderbilt a sub-500 team. Their record is not any indication of how they are. They hit great shots. The hit big shots. We went in the game knowing that's what they needed to do to stay in the game, and we didn't defend them. We have to understand game preparation. What we need to do, stick to the game plan, and we won't dig ourselves in a hole."

On defensive pressure in the second half:
"It wasn't about our offensive; it was about our defense. We couldn't get stops. Cheridene came in, and she's one of our best defenders. Annie (Anastasia Hayes) came in and did a good job. We had some defenders out there that were very good. We wanted to press early. We wanted to press in the first quarter, but our players weren't very interested in that. We waited until the fourth quarter. I thought Jaime's hustle play that saved the ball and kicked it back was the start of great things to happen on our press."

On performance of Mercedes Russell and Cheridene Green:
"I think Mercedes (Russell) is demanding the ball more. I think we have players that understand that we need to get her the ball. I talk a lot about playing inside-out. Mercedes has to get touches, and it's going open you up for the outside shot. You are going to have a field day. We talk a lot about that. Mercedes is stronger. I think it gets really physical on her, and she's strong and big and takes a lot of the hits. I was really proud of her for hanging tough. Cheridene could play a minute and have five rebounds. She is just an old school basketball player. A blue collar worker that goes to work. She is going to get a rebound and doesn't care who she has to run over to get it. We have to get her under control driving to the basket, and we talked about that. When we came off at halftime I was like, 'Great job.' She goes, 'I had those turnovers.' I said to forget the negative. You are doing a heck of a job. I want her to focus on the positive. She is gradually just building her way back in and getting in shape. We need her. We need her play coming off the bench."

On what she said to Anastasia Hayes during fourth quarter timeout:
"We are talking point guard to point guard. She had an unbelievable pass, and it was on the money. It got us fired up. I know we scored, but immediately my mind went, 'That was a great pass!' I wanted to make sure she knew that. It was hard. It was leading. It was a quarterback throwing to a wide receiver. She caught it and laid it up. Beautiful. It was just a great fast break. I wanted to make sure she understood that. Evina didn't have a great game. She is going to have those games. She was positive on the bench. She had four fouls. Annie (Anastasia Hayes) stepped in. That's the luxury of having the depth and the experience that the players we have that Annie can come in. I tell Annie, 'I love you coming off the bench.' I absolutely love her coming off the bench because she has energy. She's quick. She is a dart. She is somebody we don't start off with. She comes, in and you have Evina Westbrook out, but now you have to guard somebody different, who is quick, fast, and attacks the basket. Annie is getting better, and all that is experience and playing time."

On Evina Westbrook being off her game and what she can learn from it as a freshman:
"I'll have to go back and watch the tape, but right now if she took bad shots—it might have been one or two—I thought she was driving, she pulled up, she missed a couple of open threes. But I think Evina let her offense affect her defense, and we'll talk about that. She started off with some… Evina is a great passer, she sees the floor. We haven't had a guard like Evina Westbrook that sees it all. She had a couple of turnovers, and we've just got to get her settled down. I was more concerned with her getting in foul trouble. I didn't think she was as committed on defense. She is a better defender than she played today. If I didn't do anything else, I got on her a bit about that. Run your team. It's your team. Run your basketball team. Annie (Anastasia Hayes) stepped up and did that today. For some reason, Evina struggled a little bit with that. I put a lot of confidence in them, and, like it or not, they've got to step up because it is their team when we are on the floor. They'll suggest things, and I'll run them because they are out on the floor, and they see it. She's got to step up. You've got to step up and run your basketball team whether you are having a great game or not. She was on the bench and cheering for her teammates, and you want to see that."

On how team keeps from getting too emotional during games:
"There is always something you can correct. There is always something we can do better. That is just their mentality. And they're even keeled, and I like that. They get excited about—I thought they were really fired up about us pressing and getting baskets, but I'm ok with it. They don't get too down if somebody scores. They don't hang their head. They have been really good with sticking with our game plan. (We had) a little lapse tonight, I don't understand why, but they have been pretty focused. I'm ok with it. I kind of get sometimes a little bit more hyped than they do, but that's my personality. We need all of these young ladies, every one of them, and it just appears to me that every game someone different steps up. Today was no exception."

Redshirt Senior Mercedes Russell
On Cheridene Green's performance:
"It was awesome. She's a really good player. In practice you can see how strong and physical she is. She's a great rebounder. It was a career night for her which was awesome, and she came up really huge for us rebounding and making layups."

On how getting the ball inside impacted her performance:
"It was a huge key for us coming into today's game. The past few days in practice we really emphasized that we need to get a lot of paint points and post-touches. Our guards did a really good job of getting in the paint and hitting jump shots and attacking the basket."

On how this game will help them prepare for upcoming road games:
"It was really good for us. The past couple games came down to the stretch, and we really relied on our defense to separate us. Our defense has got to be huge in the next couple of games coming up, but we are just going to take it one game at a time."

Redshirt Junior Cheridene Green

On her perspective defensively:
"From my perspective, I told myself we just have to have energy, and we just have to communicate. We have to listen and have effort. That's what I mainly focused on. If something wasn't going well, I focused on something else. I just made sure that I was communicating with my teammates and going for every rebound. My main thing was just focusing on the little things."

On how exciting the game is when it's being played efficiently:
"Basketball is really exciting for me. Sometimes I get a little too excited. I love watching the game and being involved. I'm always ready, no matter how many minutes I get. I'm always going to be ready to go in even if it's just grabbing rebounds or talking or playing defense. I'm always ready and excited to play."

On how Anastasia Hayes affects everyone else's game:
"I think she is a very good point guard. She is very quick and always aware. She may make small mistakes like everyone else, but she's always got her eyes on everybody. She's very vocal with me, which is why I like playing with her."

Tennessee Senior Jaime Nared

On what the Lady Vols need to improve on moving forward:
"I don't think we came out very aggressive today. I thought we didn't play the way we've been playing. I think we haven't played as tough as we can in the past couple of games. That's just something we need to pick up. Our turnovers in the first half were something that messed with us, and we didn't play aggressive defensively. We let our defense affect our offense in the first half and the third quarter. We picked it up in the fourth quarter, but we can't do that in this league."

On if the team was surprised by results of the first half:
"Every team we play in the conference is capable of beating one another. That's what is so great about the SEC and why we love playing in it. Every team is so competitive. We weren't shocked with Vandy hitting shots. We knew that's what they were doing from our scouting report. Our coaches did a great job of telling us what they can do, and we just didn't execute that at all or play well defensively. We knew who Vandy had that could shoot, and we didn't get on them. They beat us a lot from the outside and toward the second half they drove more. We just had to clean some things up."

On how she is holding up physically:
"I'm all good. Unless I can't walk, nothing is going to keep me from playing. I love this game. I'm a tough player and nothing is going to keep me out."

Vanderbilt Head Coach Stephanie White

Opening Statement:

"I'm really proud of our team for battling. I thought we did a good job of competing. We came into a tough environment with a lot of adversity and played a national championship-competitive team. I was proud of our team for the way we played. I'm proud of our team for our attention to detail. We had some breakdowns, there's no doubt about it. We can't afford 21 turnovers. We can't afford to give up 17 o-boards. For the most part, we were coming in and just looking for our team to fight and compete and execute the game plan. For the most part, we did that."

On Tennessee's pressure towards the end of the game:

"It was a major factor. That's an area of growth for us. When teams pressure us, we've got to be able to calm our minds. We've got to be able to execute our press break. We have young perimeter players, young guards. I think finding some calm in the storm, so to speak, is a growth area for us. That kind of pressure with that kind of length and that kind of athleticism that we see in the SEC is hard for us to simulate in practice. So, we have to do as good of a job as we can. We have to prepare them as well as we can. Then, we're just going to learn on the job every day. We're thrown into the fire to be able to find a way to calm ourselves through that. That 10-0 run they had in the fourth, due to our turnovers, was a problem for us.

On being encouraged moving forward by her team's play against Tennessee:

"I'm not huge in moral victories, but at the same time, the growth area that we had in terms of our competitiveness and our fight, that's what we were looking for. It's not as much about the scoreboard. Certainly, we want to win and put ourselves in position to win. We want to give ourselves a chance, but we grew a lot tonight in terms of our competitive toughness, in terms of our mental toughness, in terms of our ability to play with multiple levels of effort. We asked our players to be one percent better in every area, and we were tonight. That's what we have to continue to do. We're in a rebuilding process. It's not going to happen overnight. We know it's not going to happen overnight, but if we can continue to grow and get better every day throughout our process, then we're moving in the right direction. Today, we took a step forward in the right direction."

On matching someone up with Mercedes Russell:

"She's a nightmare, yes. She's really hard to matchup with, not just because of her size, but her poise, her strength. I was able to cover Russell when we were doing TV, when she was a freshman and when she was a sophomore. (That was) when she didn't want that contact, when she was a little bit passive wanting the ball. Her development, particularly over the last two years, has been phenomenal. She's a pro. There's no doubt about it. She's hungry for the ball. She puts this team on her shoulders in a way that you don't see a lot of bigs do. She's so poised and mobile. I'm not sure there is anybody in the country that can match up with her. She's really a rock and a glue for them."

On producing offensively against Tennessee:

"We know that we can shoot the ball when we get a chance. Typically, we like to play from the inside out. With their size we knew that we had to be able to knock some shots down on the perimeter to start, and we did. That opened it up for Chelsie (Hall), in particular in the second half, to be able to attack. Tennessee has changed up their defenses a lot throughout the season, playing some man, playing some zone. We wanted to try and spread the floor, keep them off balance, no matter which defense they were in. I thought our ability to understand what we were trying to get in our offense, regardless of what they were playing, was much better today."

On scouting versus playing Tennessee:

"I don't know that it changed other than the fact that they look big on film, but they look really big in person. When you have a group of freshmen like they have, that are so poised… I'm sure Holly (Warlick) doesn't always think that, but when you watch them from the outside, they just play with a maturity level that you don't see amongst freshmen. They're all very talented. Then, you have Jaime Nared and Mercedes Russell that are those anchors that really help them from a leadership standpoint, that help them in time and score situations, that help them when teams are making runs. They're a complete team. Their returning players all got better, and their freshmen are coming in and making impacts. This is a team that can compete for a national championship, there's no doubt about it."

Vanderbilt Guard Cierra Walker

On finding a groove against Tennessee:

"This is our rival team, and we wanted to come out and be competitive, to play hard. We've been struggling with communication and stuff in practice. We knew that we needed to come out and prove ourselves, show that we belong to be here. Throughout practice yesterday, we had a good competitive spirit. We were competing. We were working hard. We were communicating. We worked super hard on our zone defense, and I think that you could tell that in the game because we were communicating super well - when to bump, when not to bump. Just overall, our team wanted to come out and compete against our rival."

Vanderbilt Guard Chelsie Hall

On her mindset going against Tennessee's size:

"They were huge. We were coming off the pick-and-roll, so I knew that once I saw (Mercedes) Russell come out, that I had the open lane. Then, if they crashed, I kicked it out to my teammates."