Lady Vols vs. Belmont Postgame Quotes

Tennessee Head Coach Holly Warlick

Opening Statement:
"Well, we like to make it exciting. Our defense was solid for about 25 minutes. I thought in the third quarter we let our offense effect our defense, and we cannot do that. We missed some easy buckets, and that kind of got to us. That is going to happen and you just have to focus on the defensive end. I thought that down the stretch we picked it up. I told them during the timeout, 'Defense and rebounding. We are going to win the game by our defense and rebounding.' That proved to be on point in the fourth quarter. Belmont is a scrappy team. They are well coached. Any time you have a team that shoots the three ball and attacks the basket, that is solid. Our main couple of focuses, one: don't give them a uncontested three because they can get threes off. I thought we did a great job at that. Secondly, we wanted to play one-on-one and keep them in front of us and defend your player. They had 50 paint points because we stood up and let them drive straight to the basket, and we gave up too many back doors because we were standing up. Those are things we are going to have to work on. I am really proud of our basketball team for sealing the deal."

On Evina (Westbrook)'s play in the fourth quarter:
"Evina is Evina. I trust her with the basketball. She was solid; she attacked. She knows how to shoot the ball when she needs too. She knows how to pass when she needs to. She was the difference in the fourth quarter for us offensively. I want the ball in her hands because great things happen when she attacks the basket. She hit her free throws. She knows how to get and-ones the old fashioned way. That is attacking the basket and that is what we wanted to do. She is outstanding."

On if she was surprised on how easily they scored on the inside:
"I was surprised they scored inside that easily because a lot of it was one-on-one, and we were supposed to front the post. When we did that, they did not get the ball inside. Defense is hard. When you have a team that shoots the three and drives, that makes the game extremely hard. You've got to be on top of your game and you've got to make defense a priority. I think we did that except in the third quarter. They outscored us 23-8 (in the third quarter). When you give up 23 points and you only score eight, you are not getting it done on the defensive end."

On having an efficient first half and if that takes a little off the edge when coming out of halftime:
"Well, I would hope not, but it possibly could. I don't know why they would do that because anybody that shoots the three can get back into the game extremely easy. We talked a lot about doing what we did the first half, like attacking the basket. I have to watch the tape, but we missed a lot of shots around the paint early in the third quarter and it frustrated us. We cannot let that frustrate us. They were getting their hands on the ball, and we were not getting onto it. We were not getting high. We just missed some easy shots and easy put backs, but that does not need to affect how we play on the defensive end and it did."

On if Jazmine Massengill's offense the past couple of games has been a surprise:
"Jazmine has been getting in the gym and working on her shot. Jazmine is a facilitator, and she is a point guard, and she tries to run the offense and give people the ball. When she is open, you are never going to see her force anything. I just tell her when she is open and she is feeling it, to take the shot. She can be a really good offensive player, but she is trying to lead the basketball team first. That is probably the reason why she does not take as many shots, and I am okay with that. She did a great job rebounding the basketball."

On the team's mentality in the third quarter:
"You have to refocus. Go back to elementary school - stay between the ball and the basket. Forget about what happened on the other end. You have to have short-term memory when you make a mistake. When you do something good, just remember it and do it again. When you make a mistake, you have to forget about it. I thought we worried too much on what we did on the offensive end. We didn't sprint back, and we didn't get in a stance (on defense). I have to watch the tape, but I don't think they did anything special to get to the basket, they just drove. That is just one on one and we have to get better at that."

On what she'll tell her team leading into SEC play:
"(The key is) just consistency. Reminding them how important defensive play is and rebounding. Making free throws. Keeping turnovers low. The game is going to be more physical and more athletic now. You have to weather storms. We didn't weather the storm very good (today), but we did in the fourth quarter. You have to answer runs, because people are going to make runs on you. Make defense a priority. Make rebounding a priority. Stop turning over the basketball. I think at this point of the season we have done a pretty good job at it, we just have to carry it over into SEC play."

On the team's play style:
"We can't just rely on one person to score all of the points and to make all of the plays. Eventually, (the opponent) will take them away. It has to be a very balanced attack. We are an unselfish team. We look for people to score the basketball. At times I think we over pass a little too much. I like us attacking and distributing the basketball. We have to have everybody step up. It can't just be Evina playing the quarter. I want her to keep doing that, but we have to have someone else step up and make plays. Re (Rennia Davis) has been doing a really good job about that. I know she was frustrated today about missing some easy buckets, but I love that she is attacking the basket. She is being aggressive. All of our guard are. That's what we wanted them to do, and they did that. They just missed a couple of finishes."

On only a coule of members of the team have played at Auburn before:
"It can be good and it can be bad. It can be good because they don't know what is coming, so they might just go out there and play. It can be bad if we turn it over and let them get in our heads. We are probably going to turn it over because that is Auburn's style of play. We have done a really good job on the road. We had a hostile environment at Texas and at Oklahoma State. This team seems to focus when we are in those types of situations. All we can do is come up with a game plan and present it and follow through with it. You have to take the crowd out and go to the next play. You can't worry about something bad happening. You just have to refocus and keep attacking the basket. That is what we need to stress along with a lot of things, but that is the first thing that comes to mind."

Senior Guard/Forward Meme Jackson

On Belmont's rebounding:
"That was a lack of effort from us with going up and getting it. We weren't making contact with them. That was one thing Dean Lockwood addressed with us. We have to make more contact and go up and get the board. They were crashing really good, and we weren't making contact."

On Evina's play in the fourth quarter:
"She had the ball in her hand and called the plays. They couldn't stop it, so we kept going to it. She read the defense and kept getting to the paint and drawing and-ones. That is what we need. We need her to be aggressive. She played good for us, and this is what we needed from her."

Sophomore Guard Evina Westbrook

On her play in the fourth quarter:
"Obviously, my job as the point guard is to call the plays. I had Rae Burrell come up and set a screen every time, and it seemed to keep working. We kept running that, and I told Meme Jackson to be ready to shoot in the corner. You have to make sure everyone is involved and knows what they're doing. Whatever play I called, we were in sync."

On their effectiveness in the paint:
"Our main plan was to run them off the line, which puts you at risk of backdoors and not being able to help since you're denying and switching consistently. Their slips were getting us in the third quarter and fourth quarter. Like Rennia Davis said, one-on-one defense was a huge priority for us, and they did get us a couple of times. We just have to be better next game."

On the improvement in Jazmine Massengill's play:
"She's been amazing. I had a talk with her right before I came in here, and I told her she had a great game but had to stay consistent with shooting the ball. I know exactly what she's going through and what she's thinking as a point guard. As a freshman point guard, she is coming in thinking she has to pass first. Her shot is wide open all the time. I told her she has to start thinking shoot first because she knows how to pass. Since then, she's been taking the shot when she's open and knocking them down. When she does that, she gets in the zone and becomes confident. That is beginning to show."

Sophomore Guard/Forward Rennia Davis

On the key to getting the win:
"We were able to pull together a couple of consecutive stops on the defensive end and then convert on offense."

On the factors that let Belmont get back into the game:
"We know we aren't going to make every shot, but we have to continue to play. Sometimes, I think we weren't doing that. We were letting our offense dictate our defense. In the fourth quarter, we were able to buckle down and display a full quarter."

On finding a balance of consistency throughout an entire game:
"Consistency is definitely important, but you also have to understand that basketball is a game of runs. Belmont had their run, but we were able to consistently put together some stops and hit shots on offense."

Belmont Head Coach Bart Brooks

Opening Statement:
"Well, credit to Tennessee. They're a really talented team. They're well-coached. I think Holly (Warlick) does a really good job with this group of making you prepare for a lot of different looks. I'm extremely proud of our group and how they competed. We got down. We made some uncharacteristic mistakes in the first half that kind of gave them a little cushion. I was really proud of how our group responded out of halftime and made it a really good game, put ourselves in a position to win. Just a couple plays down the stretch that didn't go our way, but credit to Tennessee, I thought they played pretty well today. (I'm) proud of our group for their toughness."

On getting to the paint:
"We expected to be able to get a lot of baskets inside, especially off of back cuts. We knew they were going to pressure and they were going to force us to back cut. We thought that if we could keep the floor spaced, we might get some of those and credit to our players, I didn't draw any of those out. That was those guys making plays sitting next to me. (That was) those guys knowing how to play, and I'm just so proud of my team for how they kept their composure and executed against a really athletic and aggressive defense."

On Belmont's offensive effort in the third quarter:
"I think they're definitely connected. The better you play on the offensive end of the floor, I think it's easier to be more scrappy defensively. I will say going into the game we knew we couldn't do anything about how long their arms and legs were, but we could always control how hard we competed. I thought our team did a great job in the second half of competing and just making some really gutsy plays. Tennessee's length is going to bother a lot of people, and it was really hard to deal with down there, but I'm extremely proud of our young women. They didn't back down an inch, and I'm proud of them."

Junior Forward Ellie Harmeyer

On how Belmont was able to win the board battle for the most part of the game:
"We knew going into this game that rebounding was going to be a huge component in our success. Obviously, I can't out-jump any of those girls on that team. It's just not going to happen. But the positioning is what I really focused on with rebounding. Getting there before they got there and pushing them out of the way to get those rebounds is something that I was really focusing on versus just out-jumping, because I wasn't going to do that. But yeah, positioning, to answer your question, is what I was focusing on."

Senior Guard Darby Maggard

On if they walk out of here knowing they competed:
"Yeah, we came in here expecting to win I think. Coach Bart does a really good job of building us up and helping us to believe in each other, believe in him, believe in Belmont and what we're doing. So, we came in here ready to win. But honestly, it's encouraging. It is. We're going to take this game and we're going to learn from it moving forward. I think playing games like this is only going to help us in our conference and down the road when we're hopefully in a big-time game in March."

On calling some of the plays themselves:
"Our offense really sets us up well to move and play off of each other and to just make reads. I think that's something that we started doing back in June, is understanding that no matter what, no matter how they play us, we're going to have an option. We're going to have reads, and if you can continue to make the right read and make the right play and do it over and over again throughout the course of the game, we're going to get good shots and they're going to go down. I think it's a testament to Coach Bart. It's a testament to my teammates that we've just continued to buy into what our offense is and how we play."