University of Tennessee Athletics
Lady Vols vs. South Carolina Postgame Quotes
February 18, 2021 | Women's Basketball
Tennessee Head Coach Kellie Harper
Opening Statement:"I'm obviously very proud of our team and very proud of our second-half effort when we got ourselves back in the game. I'm very proud about finishing the game. That basketball team is so good. Their disciplined. They have a lot of talent and a lot of depth. They do things well on both ends of the court. I'm really proud of our team for stepping up and making plays when we had to make them. We got a huge win. I'm so happy and so proud."
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On how the team enjoys this win, before getting ready for Sunday's road trip to Georgia:
"That's exactly right. You enjoy this. You let it spark you a little bit, and then you get focused again. One of the things we've talked about all season – and a lot of it was dealing with COVID-19 and not knowing what was going to happen – was how resilient we were going to have to be. Whatever was in our path, we were going to have to handle. You go on the road, and you've got to handle it. I think it's really important that we are locked in. We've needed to get a little bit of practice in and hopefully, that will help us be prepared to go play a really good basketball team. They're playing great. Georgia's playing really well right now."
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On what it says about the team and program to fight for 40 minutes and win against a top-5 opponent:
"We've done it all year. We have fought all year long. We haven't won every game, but we have fought. We have been in every single ballgame going down the stretch, and sometimes the other team has made more plays. Maybe we lost some focus, but we fought. We're competitive and we play hard. Those are two things, when I step out onto the court every game, I know I'm going to get those two things. I know it. I don't know where our execution will be. I don't know where our defense will be. I usually know where our rebounding will be, but those two things I can count on with this basketball team."
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On the team outscoring South Carolina 50-30 in the second half:
"I think it speaks well to their fight, their competitiveness and not getting down. We talk about that a lot. In basketball you see it all the time. Runs happen. You never feel secure with any lead that you have. Our team got ourselves right back in it. The thing that looked a little different tonight was that we got back in it and then really never faltered. We kept going. There weren't a lot of mental mistakes on our part in the second half. We played pretty focused, and I'm really proud of that."
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On the team's preparation leading up to this game and Rae Burrell's much-needed baskets early in the first half:
"I thought Rae's aggressiveness and her ability to knock down some shots in that first half was critical – to keep it in the ballpark for us so that we would be able to regroup at halftime, come back out and give ourselves a chance. Her putting those points on the board was really important. In terms of our preparation, I told somebody earlier that this is probably the least preparation that we've done for a team this year. It's probably the team that we needed to prepare the most for. One of the things that we decided to rely on was, 'Let's just go and be the best us that we can be – not try to get too fancy with the game plan and go out and let our players play.' Obviously, it worked a little bit better in the second half than it did in the first, but our preparation looked different. It was very choppy. It just looked different because there hadn't been a rhythm to our schedule in the last two weeks."
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Tennessee Senior Guard/Forward Rennia Davis
On the challenges of not having a height advantage in games:"I know for some of our guards, we usually get some post ups. We didn't really get as many of those today, but I thought we worked around it. We still had advantages over them, and I thought we were able to exploit those. I thought in the second half we were able to get to the free-throw line, and that gave us some momentum and easy buckets."
On what the halftime message was from the coaching staff:
"She [Kellie Harper] said we were playing soft, and I took it personal. My first half—I just wasn't doing enough for the team. I took it personal and my teammates did too. We came out there and I thought we grew up in the second half."
On what a win of this caliber does for the team's confidence:
"It's huge for us, winning against a team as good as South Carolina. I told the team before the game that this was our turning point in the season. We could've lost three in a row. Every year since I've been here, we've lost to South Carolina, and today we stepped up and did what we needed to do. We didn't get everything 100 percent right, but we just kept fighting. I think that will take us further than anything this season."
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Junior Guard/Forward Rae Burrell
On what it means to fight through a game and come out with a win:"Just like you said, fighting for 40 minutes. Fighting for 40 minutes was the difference in this game. Not just letting them do what they wanted, but fighting back and drawing the line and saying this is what we're going to do."
On what beating South Carolina does for the team's confidence:
"I think this is a good momentum starter into these next few games and the tournament coming up. This could be a turning point for us and seeing what we can really be and what our potential really is."
On how to get refocused and ready for Sunday's game at Georgia:
"I think just taking the momentum from this win into the next game. We already lost to them, so it's a little bit personal for us now."
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South Carolina Head Coach Dawn Staley
On what Rennia Davis was doing different in the second half that they couldn't stop:"She put us back on our heels. She just got momentum after that. She got to the free-throw line. She did a little bit of everything. She's a senior in this league. She's done that night in and night out. Unfortunately for us, she did that on a night when they needed it, and she willed them to a win."
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On how all the whistles affected the flow of the game:
"It's a part of the game. There was a lot of stoppage, but at this stage of the game you have to be ready to pivot and play whatever style that is needed to win basketball games. Tennessee just took it to us in the third and fourth quarters; we had nothing or no one to stop it."
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On what was missing during the third and fourth quarters:
"The biggest problem was we couldn't make a basketball play, whether it was a simple high-post pass or making reads. We got the ball to the high post but couldn't figure out how to get it to the low post."
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On what her message was to the team after the loss tonight:
"One loss will have huge ramifications in this league and also on the whole nation scheme as far as the NCAA tournament. For us, I like to play in front of all of that, and you leave all the questions to them. Now, we're going to be the ones asking the questions instead of just forging ahead. But we'll right the ship. As much as it is a devastating loss, there's still a lot of the season left. Again, all of our goals are still in front of us."
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On the biggest difference between the last year's Lady Vols team compared to this year's team:
"The biggest difference is that they're disciplined, they're in shape, they're more healthy, and they just kept fighting."
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Players Mentioned
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