Lady Vols vs. Missouri Postgame Quotes

Tennessee Head Coach Holly Warlick

Opening statement:
"I loved our energy. We played so hard. That is why this is a tough game for our kids. We had, at times, little things that we did on defense were magnified. Bottom line is that we gave up too many threes. With a team like this, if you make mistakes, they take advantage of them. We cannot give up the wide-open threes and expect it to be okay."

On if the last play was what she'd drawn up:
"The first one we did (draw up). The second one, we did not. But we got the ball inbounds, and we got a good look. It didn't come down to the last shot; it came down to we shot 66 percent from the free-throw line and (we) gave up too many threes."

On if Missouri is a hard team to get to the basket against:
"It appeared to be today. They packed the lane. Meme Jackson, who has been so good for us, struggled today, and that hurts us. Today it was (hard to get to the basket). And when we did, we got good looks or got fouled, so I really wanted us to do that a little more."

On preparing her team for how physical the game was:
"I thought we handled it. I thought we were physical. I thought Cheridene (Green) played one of her best games. She was on the boards and was physical. We did those things. I don't think that was something we let affect us. We had some mental lapses, and against a veteran team you cannot have those. They will take advantage of you."

On her thoughts when Sophie Cunningham appeared to elbow Rennia in the face:
"I did not see it. She said that an elbow hit her in the face. I didn't even ask (the referees)."

On the drama around Sophie and if she is a dirty player:
"That's kind of not up to me. Sometimes that play is called, and sometimes it is not. I just think she plays hard. She is a tough kid, and that's just how she plays. We know that is how she plays. The officials know how she plays. It is what it is. You can't get caught up in that stuff. We weren't concerned about that."

On Haley Troup significantly exceeding her average scoring:
"It was not just her. I will have to go back and watch the tape. We had a kid in the back stay in the lane too much. When you think about how many wide-open threes they got, can't do that to a team. That is just not rotating, not being aware who is in your area. As a young team, we've got to get smarter. And it wasn't just one person, it was a combination. At least they are shooting threes, we've got to contest. I am going to guess that there were four wide open threes that they made, and that's just us being sucked in. We worked on it, and we knew that was going to happen. And again, we've just got to get smarter. I loved our energy; I loved how hard they played. Gosh, we played hard. And that's why this game hurt so much to not come out winning because of our effort and energy. We've got little things we've got to take care of."

On Cheridene Green's performance today:
"I thought that Cheridene wanted the basketball. I thought she dominated the boards. That's her game. Her game is getting the offensive boards and putting them back. I thought she shot really well from the free-throw line. I liked how hard she played. She brings the team energy by how hard she plays as well. She was all over the boards, and that is tough against a physical team like Missouri."

On playing a team with a lot of players who can shoot the three:
"It's kind of a chess match. Cheridene was scoring well. We put Kasi in there because we thought we could take advantage of the inside. At times, it limits us defensively. I don't think it was Cheridene. I will have to watch the tape, but it appeared to me it was our guards that were giving up a lot of threes."

On turning around the turnover situations from the first to the second half:
"I will have to watch the tape. I don't know if we were playing too fast or what. We threw two bounce passes across the lane at the top. We can't do that, because it gives the defenses a chance to get a steal and an easy layup. I think we only had two turnovers in the second half. We limited our turnovers."

On her team being too unselfish:
"At times we are (too unselfish). I thought at times we attacked the basket, and we should have pulled up and shot or kicked out. I am okay with that. Down the stretch we have to know who to get the ball to. I thought Rennia and Westbrook stepped up. At times, we are (too unselfish), especially early in the game."

On if she liked the teams shot selection:
"I did. I thought we could have moved their defense a little more. It is tough when Meme Jackson struggles. She has been one of our leading scorers and our glue offensively. We needed to step up. I thought we took a couple of threes and quick shots that we did not need to, especially when we got a stop. That is something we will watch and correct."

On the 3-point shooting teams proving to be the toughest to guard for this team:
"It has been to this point. UAB shot threes. Stanford shot threes. That's something that we have to clean up."

On moving past this and getting ready for Kentucky:
"We are off tomorrow because we have to give them a day off. We will focus on (Kentucky) Tuesday and Wednesday and play Thursday. This is what this conference is. It is a grind. You learn from today, then you have to refocus on the next game. That is the way it is. We will watch tape and understand what we did wrong. We will come in and refocus and get ready for Kentucky."

Sophomore Guard Evina Westbrook
On how SEC play is different from a physical standpoint:

"Every game in the SEC is going to be physical. Every team is athletic and likes to run just like we do. The coaches made the point before this game to keep our heads low and not to get sucked in to all the acting and all of that type of stuff, just go out there and play basketball like we usually do."

On if Missouri's patience on offense is hard to defend:
"Not really. I think the last couple of games our defense really picked up. In the first half we were really there, but just allowing them to get threes, which we know they like to shoot, wasn't the game plan for us. We just have to do a better job on defense."

On how she evaluated Tennessee's ball movement during the game:
"I thought we were getting good looks. I didn't have as many assists, personally, as I usually do. We got stagnant at times and had a couple bad shots here and there, but overall not too bad."

On what they drew up on the final play:
"We were just trying to get the best shot possible. We were just drawing stuff up for us to get open. We did not like the first look, so she (Holly Warlick) called another timeout and just wanted to draw something else up for us."

On the team's offensive performance:
"I think we were getting really good looks, but things just were not going in. Our top scorers did not have a good shooting night. At the same time, you have to be able to pick them up. We were getting really good looks and our effort was there overall, but we just could not finish."

Sophomore Guard/Forward Rennia Davis
On the final shot of the game:

"I think it was a makeable shot for me, but it just did not go in. I just tried to get it back."

On Missouri improving in the second half:
"We had some miscommunication on some switches and gave up threes a couple of times. A couple of times we might have helped out a little too much. Some of their shooters were able to hit some threes. Just small stuff like that, we need to clean up and get better at."

On if she considers Sophie Cunningham's a dirty player:
"I think she just plays her own way and however she is how she is. We just have to adjust to each player we play against. We know that she plays hard and plays physical each possession, so I wouldn't say that she's dirty, but she has her own way of playing."

Sophomore Forward Cheridene Green

On if her performance on the offensive glass is something she would like to be able to do more often:
"Yes, for sure. I need to be able to do that more for this team to help them."

Missouri Head Coach Robin Pingeton

Opening Statement:
"First of all, thank you for being here. You guys have an incredible fanbase, pretty special place to play. I've got a lot of respect for Holly (Warlick) and this team. There's no doubt in my mind they're going to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. There's a lot of talent on this team, and I think they've still got some young kids and different pieces that they're trying to work through a little bit, but it's a very talented team. Obviously, a great win for us. I think any time you win on the road in the SEC, you're going to be pretty excited about that. I've got a lot of respect for Tennessee, so to be able to come in here against a top-10 team, that's big for us. I thought it was a battle. Offensively, we both used timeouts which set the game back a little bit, but in the SEC, it's just like that. It's a battle. I thought in the second half we had a hard time keeping them off the offensive boards but made enough defensive plays to keep us in it. Big win for us, we feel very excited."

On what she expected Tennessee to do with a chance a to go up by one after two timeouts:
"We thought we might get hit on a back-cut. We said we certainly don't want to give up a two, but definitely not going to give up a three. My biggest concern was an offensive rebound, following it in and giving up an and-one. We talked our kids through that. We wanted them to hit a tough contested shot like all teams do, switch off screens late and make them hit a tough one, but definitely not give up an uncontested shot and no back-cuts to the basket."

On having Cierra Porter back:
"About a week and a half before finals week I had gotten a text from her that said, 'Not trying to get my hopes up, but do you think I have any eligibility left?' Kind of caught me off guard, because I didn't think that this would be something that would come back to fruition. I thought when she was walking it was about a quality of life. And she does, she's got chronic knee pain and it swells up quite a bit. She had really not been doing much over the last six months. She was living in Denver with her brother Michael Jr., and she didn't have the constant pounding on it. Been going to the gym, just kind of getting shots up with him, and I think just being around it every day, she just kind of had that itch. She asked me to check with her compliance. I did. She had another year of eligibility. She graduated in three years, and so from then we're kind of talking more about next year than this year. But the more we talked about it, we kind of got excited about this season, and just because of the limited wear and tear on her knee versus playing an entire season, and it happened pretty quick. Just to have that experience, that size back. I joked with her after the game, 'Clearly you haven't been in the weight room very much,' because we had a hard time keeping Tennessee off the boards. But honestly her shot looks really good. She's been practicing well. Her timing's not that far off. I think she's somebody that can definitely help us throughout the course of the SEC season."

On defensive effort and the game plan:
"I think part of the challenge is you go from two drastically different styles of play when you play a team like Auburn versus us playing more in the gaps. You only have 48 hours to prepare for it, and I think that probably could be a little bit of a challenge in that short turnaround. It's just complete different styles. We understand the athletes that we are going against are some tremendous players. Just the importance of helping each other out, being in great positioning, understanding personnel, what are their strengths, what are some things that maybe we could exploit. So when you go into the SEC, game planning is really important, knowing your scout because we don't have that one type of defense that we rely on game in and game out. It's really predicated on personnel, so give these girls credit. They watched a lot of film, studied their scout, and I thought they did a really nice job tonight."

Redshirt Freshman Guard Haley Troup

On her performance:
"I think once I got in the rhythm in the first half, I think I hit a layup and a three, you can kind of feel it as a player when you're in the zone, and I just felt it. I was going to let it fly when I was open and do whatever I needed to do to help my team win, and that just happened to be scoring the ball today."

Senior Guard Sophie Cunningham

On staying patient in the game:
"They are a very athletic team, and they're coached very well. Our biggest thing is that if we went athlete to athlete, we wouldn't win the game, and so our game plan was high in gaps, and we had to out-team them. We knew they were going to go on runs. The atmosphere here was awesome to play in, and we knew they were going to get their crowd into it. For us, we just had to stay patient, weather the storm and honestly from top to bottom, even if players didn't get in, I think we did a really good job just having that tunnel vision."