Postgame Quotes: Lady Vols 90, UNCW 54

Dec. 29, 2016

Head Coach Holly Warlick

(Opening Statement)
“We were a little rusty. Overall, we did some really good things. We didn’t play a perfect basketball game and had too many turnovers. We had 21 assists, so it’s tough to balance out. We had a couple of kids shoot over 50 percent. I was pleased that we settled down and did some really good things.”

(On Jordan Reynolds’ triple-double)
“She has been really focused. When she plays within her game, she is an outstanding guard. That means attacking the basket, getting out in the passing lanes on defense, and rebounding. It’s been really hard for us to get her to rebound. I have been really proud of her. We spent some time before the game watching her previous game, and she has been really tuned in and focused. I can watch a million game tapes with her, but she has to do it. She is in great shape right now. We have to have her play in order to win basketball games. It’s that simple. We won’t beat around the bush about it; Jordan has to be a competitor. The last couple of games, she has really competed and brought energy for us. I was happy for her.”

(On holding UNCW to 19 points in the second half)
“I think it was our effort. We didn’t stick to the game plan in the first half. We gave them wide-open shots. They made four 3-pointers. We didn’t switch on some things. We got serious in the second half about our defense. When they saw the stats from the first half, I didn’t have to say a lot. They saw what we were not doing. It’s all in the attitude and effort. UNCW is a solid basketball team. It’s really difficult to guard a team that can shoot the three and penetrate. We weren’t guarding either of those. Once we got serious on the defensive end is when our scoring went up. It always does.”

(On where she feels the team is at)
“I feel great about where we are. We came back from Christmas break and had two solid practices. These kids are focused and playing hard. I’m excited and I know they are. We talked about what is ahead of us, and they’re ready. They’re putting in the time, and everybody is getting the chance to play. We are starting to see them play well together. They’re excited. Our first few of games are crazy, but we are focused on Kentucky and what we need to do. I think they are ready to go. They’ve given me a lot of confidence with how they’re practicing, together, talking and trusting. There’s a lot of trust on this basketball team right now. When you feel that as a coach and see it, you get excited about who you are playing, regardless of who it is.”

Tennessee Guard Jordan Reynolds

(On her triple-double tonight)
“I’ve been close a couple of times, which is so frustrating. My teammates were telling me on the bench, they kept reminding me and I was just looking for the open person. Meme Jackson did a great job running the floor for me. I thought Jaime Nared did a great job as well. They are very consistent at that. Our transition points have been great these last couple of games. We’ve been very consistent just getting the ball, rebounding, outlet and hitting the open player. I think they did a great job.”

(On her exchange with teammate Jaime Nared after a missed layup)
“Me and Jaime, we miss a lot of layups. I know I’ve been in that position before. We laughed it off because it happens a lot, which it shouldn’t at this level, but it just does. It was just a funny exchange because I’ve been there before.”

(On being the third Lady Vol to record a triple-double)
“To think of all the people who have come before me in this program, I thought I was the 120th person to do it. But to see I’m in good company, it’s awesome to know. My teammates were more excited than I was. Coming out [of the game] they just joined me, and they were all over me, just so excited. That’s the best feeling, that my teammates were so proud of me.”

Tennessee Forward Jaime Nared

(On her exchange with teammate Jordan Reynolds after a missed layup)
“I said, ‘I’m sorry.’ She knew that I was sorry. And then coach laughed and said, ‘She could’ve had eleven assists!’”

(On team’s third quarter play)
“I think we were just having fun. The first two quarters it looked like we didn’t want to be out there. The third quarter, Jordan was distributing the ball, of course. Mercedes was finishing. Meme was getting fast-break layups. We were all just playing hard. Lex [Middleton] was handing out assists. It was just a lot of fun. We were playing together; we were playing hard. We started to get stops on defense and then went on a big run in the third quarter.”

(On mindset going in to a 6-0 run to take the lead)
“Well our second quarter was terrible. I think the scoring in the second quarter was 19-18. So basically going into halftime the coaches were just talking about how we needed to pick it up. It was pretty self-explanatory. We were very lethargic as they called it, and we just weren’t playing hard. We weren’t getting stops. We weren’t playing as a team. We weren’t talking on defense. We weren’t doing anything to play as team. So I think that was the biggest thing we talked about at halftime, that we needed to get better in the third quarter.”

(On thoughts on team’s status going into SEC play)
“I think we’re definitely not where we want to be, but we’re definitely progressing from where we started this season – getting out to four bad losses, losses we wish we could have played again and taken back. I think we’re definitely playing better and playing together. Obviously Diamond is out, and we’re going to need her when SEC starts. I’m excited about how we’re going to take this SEC season. I think we’re prepared, and we’re going to keep preparing. It’s obviously a long season, and I think it’s going to be fun.”

Tennessee Guard Meme Jackson

(On scoring 20 points)
“It was good. It was great feeding off my teammates. Jordan had good looks, she hit me and I was wide open, and I was able to knock the shot down.”

(On Tennessee’s emphasis on transition basketball)
“Like Coach Holly [Warlick] says, it starts with defense. So with our defense we know that we have got to get stops. In practice we preach run, get out, and run our lanes in transition, and that’s what we were all trying to do – just get out and run like we do in practice.”

(On finishing out 2016 with four wins before SEC play)
“We’ve got momentum right now and we’re just going to build off of it every day in practice until our next game. So we’re just ready for the next point.”

UNCW Head Coach Adell Harris

(Opening Statement)
“The third quarter was a killer for us, I’m proud of the way our kids fought. Overall if you were a spectator watching the game you definitely couldn’t say UNCW wasn’t a team that was fighting and competing. That was very important.”

(On the tough environment on the road and what the team takes away from it)
“Well, you just want to be able to consistently repeat the effort. Obviously coming to Tennessee, if one or two things don’t happen, if you don’t roll up your sleeves and commit to getting dirty early, they’re going to take this thing away in the first three minutes. I think our kids knew that and we had an agenda, we’re going to come out throwing punches and we’re going to try to execute as best we can both offensively and defensively and see what happens. You got to put that together consistently for four quarters. Hopefully our kids will learn how to do that moving forward.”

(On the third quarter)
“We talked about two things we didn’t want to do, we don’t want to give them second shots and we want to make sure we secure transition to defense and get floor balance on our shots. What you saw really early in that third quarter, I think within the first couple of possessions they got three or four early offensive rebounds and put-backs on us and then they were in transition without defenders between them and the basket. We talked about not wanting to be that team to give them easy opportunities; make sure everything is challenged. That third quarter, give them credit obviously they went into the locker room and saw they were only up two on the board and they did something about that but those are the two areas that I thought we got exposed. We missed shots that we made in the first half. You miss some shots, you get long shots, (which leads to) long rebounds and they’re off to the races. We missed some shots.”

UNCW Guard Jasmine Steele

(On showing no fear in her approach to the game)
“I just wanted to do what my coach told me to do, attack the post players. I wasn’t afraid to go in there and shoot over her. I was just wanting to make the shot.”

(On her ball fake and layup)
“I think it’s just like a natural instinct sometimes. I really don’t practice it.”