POSTGAME QUOTES: Lady Vols 57, Ole Miss 51

Feb. 18, 2016

Head Coach Holly Warlick

(Opening Statement)
"It was a tough battle for us, and it was a great win. I thought the kids stepped up, and kids came off the bench that was huge. We got the win."

(On Kortney Dunbar playing in tonight's game)
"Thank god I got her in! Thank goodness, Kortney, Nia and Meme work so hard in practice. I had already decided before the game started that I was going to give them that opportunity. They did not disappoint. They did not back down. I thought their defense was solid. I worry about sometimes Kortney defending, but I thought she did an outstanding job, and obviously hit a big three, got a huge rebound for us. Then, Meme Jackson was just Meme Jackson. So, you see what she can do. I thought the last two weeks she has gained a lot of confidence because she's played really hard in practice. I'm really proud of them, and Nia Moore as well. Nia just goes about her business and it's solid. So, I'm really excited for them to get the opportunity to contribute, and contribute in a big way."

(On Mercedes right ankle)
"Yeah, I think she stepped on somebody's foot. I asked her how she is, and she said okay, but that's Mercedes. I don't know; I haven't talked to the doctor yet."

(On DeShields' minutes without scoring)
"I think Diamond, right now, is trying to play so hard with everyone else that it's, you know, she's going 0-for-4 and four turnovers. She's a better passer, she's a better player, and you want Diamond DeShields at the line to hit two free throws in key situations, and she misses them. It wasn't a great night for her. She was positive on the bench, and she was excited for Kortney, Meme and Nia. She didn't have one of her better games. I think she was pressing and just didn't have a good game."

(On Kortney's play with the game on the line)
"Kortney just does what she does. She has ice water in veins. She and Meme both went in at crucial times, and they delivered. She has a lot of confidence in what she does. She's put in the time and I think our defense has gotten so much better, so I gave her that opportunity and she delivered."

(On playing Kortney more often)
"I'm always trying to get Kortney in the game. I'm trying to get everyone in the game. It's kind of time and possession and who is scoring, and who's playing well and what we need. Like I said, some games I have a lot of confidence in Kortney and I haven't gotten her in. I think we're going to need her down the stretch, and I think this was a great start for her."

(On Bashaara Graves playing 36 minutes tonight)
"I haven't even talked about Bashaara, and you know why? She's just so constant. We take Bashaara Graves for granted, and should not. She's playing like she's on a mission. She's a senior leading this basketball team. Her effort is unbelievable. She just quietly goes about her business and gets 12 rebounds, 15 points, and one steal. I just can't say enough about Bashaara."

(On Meme Jackson given the team a spark in the third quarter)
"I think Meme's style is she comes in a plays all out. There's a little bit of her that doesn't have a conscience, and thats ok for me because I think she has the confidence right now to go in. She didn't hesitate to hit those two shots, and I thought those two shots were crucial. To come off the bench cold, I thought both she and Kortney [Dunbar] were huge for us, huge."

(On holding onto the lead late in the game)
"We haven't been doing that. We haven't held on. It speaks volumes of how far we've come. Now we'd love to not lose a lead. We have to get better in our zone-offense attack, and we have. I think the ball gets stuck in our hands for some reason, and we'll go back and watch tape and try and correct that. We could have folded, and we didn't. We had kids step up and make plays, and get rebounds. We finished the deal. That's what we needed to do, finish the job."

(On getting Kortney Dunbar more minutes)
"Yes, I'm going to try. Look, bottom line is I've got to do what I need to do to win. Those two young ladies helped us win today. I hope I can get them more playing time, absolutely."

(On not turing the ball over as much in the second half)
"I just think we were a little bit more deliberate with the basketball. We had two 30-second turnovers. We had another inbounds turnover. Those are things I keep saying. The turnovers that we can control, we have to get better at. You can't have two 30-second calls, the 30-second clock go off twice in a row. You just can't do that. I'll take the blame for that. We need to work on that and we have, but we obviously need to do it more. We need to do more of getting the ball inbounds. I get to the point where you need to just get it in. Just get it in."

Senior Forward Bashaara Graves

(On Kourtney Dunbar's three point shot)
"I was excited for Kourtney. We all knew that she could hit that shot on any day and any time from even further than she was. We knew that was money all day. When she hit [the shot], it was definitely needed, she helped us win."

(On what it took to defeat Ole Miss)
"We definitely needed these last wins and we knew how bad we needed it today. I think we just buckled down and we got stops when we needed to and scored off transition when we needed to."

Sophomore Forward Kourtney Dunbar

(On scoring her three-point shot in under two minutes left)
"I knew my teammates trusted me from behind the line so I was confident in my shot."

(On limited playing time)
"I know that my time is coming and even tonight my teammates were just really happy for me. I just love going out there and doing what I can do to help my team win. I know that Holly trusts me and I have complete confidence in her. I know that she's going to play me in situations that I feel comfortable in. I know people say that I might not get a lot of playing time so coming into clutch situations like that might be kind of nerve-wracking; but even in practice I'm always the one shooting the last second three so I knew I had a lot more time. I just came in comfortable with my feet set, even like Bashaara said, `that's money' because we always joke around and in practice I'll say that. When I saw it leave my hand I just knew it was good."

Sophomore Wing Jaime Nared

(On the difference in efficiency between the first and second half)
"I think the third quarter we had two turnovers and we were way more efficient than the first and second quarters. We had to make smart passes and stop turning the ball over."

(On covering the floor for Mercedes Russell)
"It's hard because Mercedes is 6-6 and she clogs up the paint entirely. When they dribble drive they don't get easy layups or shots in the paint when she's in the game. We had to adjust when she came out and it took a little bit for us to finally adjust because it's so nice having her in there."

(On defeating Ole Miss)
"They played well tonight, they're a really good team. They're great drivers, penetrators and very athletic. You have to be ready."

Ole Miss Head Coach Matt Insell

(Opening Statement)
"Great game. Two good teams. Tennessee has a really good basketball team. I follow Tennessee a lot, growing up in this state and knowing a lot about the history of this program. I watch them as a fan at times. They have a really good team, and I was real proud of how hard our kids played tonight and gave ourselves a chance to win. You look at our record and really dig in to who we are and look at who we play. I have been in this light for eight years and followed it for 33 years, as long as I have been alive. I have never seen a team with a schedule like we have. Before the season started if you look at it, our double opponents are Texas A&M, Mississippi State and South Carolina, who are the top three teams in the league. If you look at who the bottom five teams were that were picked preseason--Alabama, Auburn, Arkansas, Georgia and LSU--we play four of those five on the road. That is why you are looking at a team that is 2-11. We are a young basketball team that is growing everyday. We are getting better. Our goal right now is to go into Jacksonville, and we will be ready to go into Jacksonville as you can see tonight. Tennessee played a good basketball game. They just beat a good team tonight in Ole Miss. All compliments to Holly. She did a great job. Dunbar made a big shot. We are up one, and we had two missed executions. We don't execute offensively in one possession where two players were off what we're trying to run. That hurts you there. They go down, and Dunbar hits a three. That is a backbreaker. That is winning and losing games. We will get better from that. I am really proud of our team."

(On preparing his team to face a program like Tennessee)
"We brought them in here last night. We just walked in the gym and I made them look at all these banners. We have two players that have never been to Knoxville, Tennessee. These girls right here [A'Queen Hayes and Shandricka Sessom] have never been here. I brought them in here and said, "Look, it's going to be really tough tomorrow because [Tamika] Catchings is really good. [Chamique] Holdsclaw is really good. Bridgette Gordon is a beast on the block. It's going to be real tough to guard them." They all looked at me because they didn't know those kids were on the scouting report, because they weren't. I just told them, I said, 'Exactly. They're not on there. They're not out there. You have to play player-for-player, and not who's in those rafters.' I've brought some teams in here when we were at Kentucky, where we played the rafters and got beat by 40. You cannot play the rafters if you're Tennessee, and that's why I was real proud of our team. They did not play the rafters, they played who they were playing. We're a growing team. I bet some teams don't want to see us when we get to Jacksonville.

Ole Miss Guard A'Queen Hayes

(On the confidence the team had with a lead late in the game)
"We felt very confident. We didn't play Tennessee for the name on their chest. We just played them as players. We're young, but we didn't look at it as being young. We just said we've got to come out here, we've got to execute plays. We've got to play hard and continue to fight. That's what we did to the end."

Ole Miss Guard Shandricka Sessom

(On hitting threes in the first quarter)
"It gave us a lot of confidence. In the second half, we just didn't knock down as many shots as we wanted to."

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