Lady Vols vs. Auburn Postgame Quotes

Tennessee Head Coach Coach Holly Warlick

Opening statement:
"It was a tale of two halves, and in the second half we were aggressive on defense and attacked on the offensive end. It was just a great effort for two quarters, and we've got to make sure we do that for the whole game. We limited our turnovers, that was our goal. We had 12 which was huge for us, and were 14 of 16 from the free-throw line, which was huge for us because we attacked the basket the second half. I'm proud of the win, and we will continue to get better."

On the assist-turnover ratio and number of steals:
"Auburn, our last game, scored a lot of points on turnovers, and that was our key. We wanted to make sure they worked for the ball to get a basket, and our ball security was huge. They didn't get as many points off our turnovers, and we played an up-tempo game. We wanted to attack. I thought we handled the ball well and we had 16 assists which was huge for us."

On the halftime talk:
"I didn't draw anything up the board; I just challenged them in a pretty strong way. That wasn't Tennessee basketball in the first two quarters, and I wasn't going to sit and watch it. So, it was really a short halftime speech, and that was probably a record amount of time to warm up at half. I just challenged them, and they stepped up."

On the second half lineup:
"I tried to play everybody the first half, but here's what happened: we played zone the first two quarters, and we weren't very good. We weren't locating shooters. In practice, we played against six people, and we played harder against six people than we did five today. So, I made the decision that we were going to go man and if we got in foul trouble, we got in foul trouble. The group that was out there was getting the job done, and I just didn't see an opportunity to play a lot more people. We have to win basketball games, and the group that wasn't playing gave us energy on the bench, and I appreciate that."

On tournament bubble talk:
"We have to win. I can't control whether we are in or out. We just have to win and that's the bottom line."

On Zaay Green:
"She has been doing that in practice. We started her inside because I wanted Kasi (Kushkituah) to sit and watch and get a good feel, and I wanted to give Meme (Jackson) a better chance to get off to a good start. She was efficient and took shots that were very makeable shots for her. In the fourth quarter, we needed to pull it out, and she shot it and it went in. She was on the boards and attacking, and that's her game."

On Meme Jackson's shooting and hitting two threes tonight:
"I thought she took good shots, and what I want to see more of from Meme is her defensive presence, because she is one of our better defenders, and she has to step up. But she needed those two threes. She's be in the gym, she's worked hard, and they needed to go, so I thought she did some good things. She had two steals, and she and Cheridene (Green) kind of sparked our little run when we got those turnovers, so I am really probably more concerned about her defense than her offense."

On the effect Evina Westbrook's passing had on her team's offense:
"She sees the floor so well, and I didn't realize she had that many (assists) because she had shot… but her presence on the court, she gets people the ball who need the ball, and she did what a point guard is supposed to do: distribute the basketball. And she hit shots when she needed to; she was solid from the free-throw line. She ran this basketball team tonight, and it was great to have her back on the court because we needed her."

On the importance of Cheridene Green and Rennia Davis' rebounding:
"We have to have them step up. I personally challenged Cheridene at halftime. I thought she was very casual, and she has got to play hard. She has got to get rebounds, she has got to get put-backs, she has got to control the boards, and I thought in the second half she did just that. Rennia, when she wants to be, is extremely difficult to defend, and in the second half I thought she attacked the basket. She makes it look kind of effortless, but we need her to step up and do those things. But our kids understand that, Evina found her, Meme found her, Zaay found her. So that's when you bring it all together - when someone is scoring and hot, you get them the basketball, and I thought that's what they did down the stretch."

On Zaay Green's shot in the fourth quarter:
"Hopefully she didn't hear me. I don't think she heard me tell her to pull it out. But Zaay is a competitor. That's what I love about her; she competes, and she plays hard. That's what we have to do for us to win - Zaay and the whole rest of the team - is to compete. Compete, that's all I ask you to do. If you have talent like our team does and you don't play hard, it completely nullifies that talent. But like in the second half, when we play hard and play with heart and energy and upbeat and with desire, we are a pretty good basketball team. But those two have to combine, it can't be one or the other, and in the second half we did that."

Freshman G/F Zay Green:

On her second half confidence and what flipped the switch for the team at halftime:
"Really, our defense was pushing for us. We just started pushing the tempo and putting pressure on the ball and making sure we were as fast as we could."

On if she feels like the intensity picked up in the second half as opposed to the first half:
"Yes, I did. Coach Holly (Warlick) came in after the first half and told us we needed to get it together because it wasn't looking that good for us."

On the lineup in the second half and what it was about that group that clicked:
"I think it was just that we all wanted to win. We all played hard and were looking for each other and just connected really well."

Sophomore Forward Rennia Davis:

On why the players weren't in the locker room as long as usual at the half:
"No. She came in and she went off for about 30 seconds, and she just left. That was that."

On if the team is focused on the standings and the importance of the next few games:
"(We're) just staying together and understanding that we have to win these next few games, but also not putting that pressure on ourselves, just coming out there and being able to play. And I think that today we really proved to ourselves that our defense can win us a lot of games."

On Cheridene Green crashing the glass:
"I think for us it helps because the rebound is a key part of the game that a lot of people don't really focus on. A lot of the time people focus on scoring or getting defensive stops, but rebounding is a part of offense and defense. When she's crashing the offensive board, she gets us second opportunities to score, and (when she) gets the defensive board, we can get a fast break from that."

Redshirt-Senior Forward Cheridene Green:

On rebounding more in SEC play:
"I pretty much just do my job, what's required. Everyone knows that I have to play great defense, box out, and crash the box, so I just do what I'm supposed to."

On how nice it was to have Westbrook back on the court tonight:
"It was great to have her back on the court. She's our point guard. She facilitates, she gets us into positions that we need to be. It was great. Her energy is good too."

Auburn Head Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy:

Opening statement:
"We knew rebounding was going to be a key and we needed to box out and rebound. That was one thing that hurt us, they out-rebounded us by 15."

On her team's defensive pressure in the first half:
"I thought our pressure got a little tentative (in the second half), and we started to back up. I thought we could have gotten up and pressured them a little more."

On what made Tennessee explode in the second half:
"I don't know if they really made more shots, but their offensive rebounds let them get more points in the paint. They got some in transition which were also easy buckets. We gave up offensive rebounds and gave up transition points."

On the importance of the coming weeks in SEC play:
"Every game is important; it is really tight in there. The competition of the SEC goes to show how good our conference is. Going down the stretch every game is important."

Auburn Guard Daisa Alexander:

On how Tennessee got back in the game:
"When the game started the coaches told us that we had to stop the ball in transition. We just were not boxing out, and we let them get offensive rebounds."

On what this loss means for them:
"I am upset about the game, but we just have to move on to the next one."

On if they are paying attention to the standings:
"Yes, we are paying attention, but other teams do not control what we do. It's the end of the season and this was a critical game, but we have to bounce back."