Postgame Quotes: Lady Vols 63, Missouri 53

Jan. 3, 2015

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(Opening Statement)
"We started slow and went in after halftime and made some adjustments, came out and played a lot harder and got hustle plays and our defense stepped up. When our defense steps up our offense seems to flow a lot better. But great win for us. I thought that Missouri was very good, they gave us all that we wanted."

(On Isabelle Harrison two fouls early)
"You are taking out our go-to player and our energy player and she plays two minutes and has to sit. So it is tough, it is hard. It seemed like in the first half we never got into a good flow on our offense. She can't get in foul trouble like that. I think her last foul we were quick shooting the basketball and she is trying to rebound. She has to get touches and she didn't get touches. We weren't moving the ball and we didn't stick to our game plan. It was, it was frustrating for us because she was sitting on the bench with two fouls in the first half."

(On the explanation of the ejection)
"It was a flagrant two, I think. It is a physical game, anyone that tells you basketball isn't a physical game they are not being truthful. They just got tangled up and emotions got involved. I think once they calmed down it was fine. Izzy has to control that, we can't have her possibly get a, whatever it is, flagrant one, and get thrown out of the game for the next game. She was frustrated, didn't have one of her better games but only played seven minutes so I would be frustrated too."

(On moving the ball)
"I think they have put in some extra time and got in the gym. I thought in the second half when we moved the basketball, I told them, you are going to get an open look on the first pass, but they are not going to change their defense. You are going to get an open look on the seventh and eighth pass. We didn't want to quick shoot the basketball. I thought we moved the ball and settled down and I thought what helped Andraya [Carter] was she got layups and she got put backs so that built her confidence up to give her the confidence to step out and hit some threes. I was proud of her. She has put in the time, we have worked with her. I have worked with her. She deserves all the credit, she is putting in the time and getting up shots."

(On Andraya Carter)
"Andraya is a good shooter. We need her. I thought her defense, especially in the second half was solid. She gets us going. She caused a lot of turnovers, we press and she was in the middle of pretty much everything. She is our best defender and we need her on the floor. If I didn't play her just because she wasn't scoring then I am not doing what I say is important to us. Andraya Carter is important to us because she gets down and plays defense and she plays hard."

(On the quick turnaround and playing Vanderbilt on Monday)
"Yeah, it is a tough game and we are fortunate to play Monday, a lot of people are playing Sunday. It is a tough place to play. They are very good, they are solid, they shoot the three, they are physical like us. Our freshmen have not played in that environment where the benches are on the end line, it is pretty wide open. We got beat down there last year, didn't play well. So we are going to have to bring our `A' game because no matter both teams record is, it is a battle because it is an instate battle and it is competitive. So we have to make sure we bring our `A' game, from the first half."

(On SEC play)
"Absolutely. I have said this all along, the SEC, it is a grind. It really is. Missouri is just as much a part of it as everybody else, it is just hard to win. You get everybody's best. You get everybody's best on the road and it is just a hard conference and I think it hopefully gets your prepared for the playoffs. We have great coaches. I think Robin [Pingeton] does a great job and plays with her strength. They had a great game plan. I am glad we played at home."

(On if the 9 p.m. tipoff concerned her)
"Not for the players. I was concerned for me. I'm usually in bed by 9:30, c'mon. It didn't bother the players. They're up on their phones. I don't think it bothered us. We don't like playing this late because it's late when we get done, and then we have practice tomorrow. That's probably the only downfall I see for us."

(On winning on the road in the SEC)
"You have to play an exceptional game to win on the road. You really, really do. We open up with Vanderbilt and it's one of the toughest places to play so we'll jump into the fire really early with it. Georgia is ranked above Mississippi State and they may go to Mississippi State and get beat. Kentucky is down by eight at halftime against Alabama and it is what it is. You have to keep your composure and you have to go in there with the belief, and it has to take a team. It really does. It's a team effort. That's what happened tonight. It was a team effort. It's an interesting deal to win on the road."

(On the 16-0 home record for men's and women's basketball)
"Our fans are into it. You saw it today. That's what I love about them. They're sitting on their hands. I love their energy, their knowledge of the game, and they've been big supporters of this program. In particular, I think they've been a great supporter of me and the changeover from Pat [Summitt] to myself. I'm very appreciative of them. We couldn't do a lot of things without them in the stands. They just keep coming back. Wear a lot of orange and Lady Vol stuff. We're proud of our fans. We just hope they keep coming back. We hope we keep putting a great product on the floor that they want to come see."

Tennessee G Andraya Carter

(On strong shooting night after rough spell)
"I don't know. I think I just decided to shoot the ball and not worry about it. It's really a testament to my teammates and my coaches because they've stuck behind me. I've gone 0-for-4, 0-for-5 and in practice, after games, all my teammates and coaches just kept telling me to shoot it. At halftime, everybody was encouraging. I just went out in the second half and just wanted to have fun and not think about it and let it go. My coaches and teammates, their support, I think, made me able to shoot the ball."

(On working on shot in practice)
"I've been working with Holly (Warlick) and Dean (Lockwood) before and after practices just fixing small things, having my elbow in and the ball leaving from my index finger. I just told myself to shoot the way we'd been working on. They've helped me so much. They've taken extra time out of their day just to really helped me get confidence in my shot and it worked."

(On Isabelle Harrison's early fouls, not getting playing time)
"We knew we wanted to get that win for Izzy. We knew she was having a rough night. Izzy has done so much for us in so many other games. This game doesn't nullify what she's done in the past. It won't hurt what she's going to do in the future. We came together as a team. We knew we had to have her back and we got the win. That's all that matters."

"We didn't really talk about it. It's just in us. It's in us to stick together, so we didn't really have to say anything. If someone's having a rough night, all of us just know you have to step up and stick together, and that's what we did."

Tennessee G Jordan Reynolds

(On improved shooting night for her and Andraya Carter)
"I thought it was a huge statement for us, just because a lot of us haven't been shooting very well. Ariel's has. It was a great time for us to get out of that drought. Like Andraya said, our coaches and our teammates have been encouraging us to continue to shoot."

(On defense)
"We knew we needed stops. Our defense does create our offense. When we're having a great defensive game, our offense just comes easily. That's what we need. We needed stops and focus on our defense."

Tennessee Senior G Ariel Massengale

(On regrouping after the ejections late in the game)
"The coaches did a great job of keeping us together. Me being a point guard and leader of this team, I kept talking to the team about what we needed to do those last 2 minutes and 55 seconds. With a team like Missouri that can shoot the ball extremely well, they're never out of a game. I knew that we had to continue to keep getting stops and play the way we had the whole second half."

Missouri Head Coach Robin Pingeton

(Opening Statement)
"I'm really proud of our players. We came off a tough game a couple days ago and I just thought the way we competed at the beginning of the game was something for us to build on through the SEC. I've got a great group of girls that work extremely hard (and are) very driven and very passionate about what's on the front of their jerseys."

(On Andraya Carter's performance)
"You got to pick and choose when you play a team like Tennessee and roll the dice a little bit. Certainly we weren't planning on her shooting 3-for-6 from the three-point line, but we did talk a lot about how great of a player she is. I love her defense. I like the way she moves around the perimeter and does a little bit of everything. She knocked down a couple that definitely hurt us."

(On the impact of Tennessee's 11-0 run to start the second half)
"We talked about it at halftime (that) Holly is challenging her kids. They're going to take it to that next level and as much as our girls wanted to think they were prepared for it, Tennessee's next level is awfully good. We had a hard time with our press offense, but give them credit. They're long. They're rangy. We wanted to keep Tennessee in a half-court game. We felt that if we could eliminate their breakaway layups and get them in a half court game, then we'd have a chance."

Missouri Senior G Morgan Eye

(On playing at UT)
"We knew that they were going to have a huge crowd, coming into the game. It's a great atmosphere (and) any college basketball player would love to play in front of a crowd like that. I was really proud of the way we stuck together."

(On having the lead at halftime)
"We felt good about where we were at, but we weren't satisfied. We did not want to be satisfied having a lead at halftime. We came here to win. That's why you play the game."

Missouri Sophomore G Jordan Frericks

(On how she was able to be so productive)
"My teammates were able to get the ball inside and that's what we were looking for. With our movement, it went really well."

University of Tennessee Athletics

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