University of Tennessee Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Lady Vols 110, Troy 84
December 21, 2016 | Women's Basketball
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Tennessee Head Coach Holly Warlick
(Opening Statement)
"It was a great win, I got my christmas wish. We won the first quarter but something happened and the grinch came in and grabbed it right back. The second quarter was not very good but we had some individuals step up and do some great things so, I'm really proud. When you play a big game like we played against Stanford, then you play a game and go home right before Christmas, it's difficult. I was worried about this game so I watched a lot of tape on Troy and they're outstanding. I don't know when the last time somebody got 99 shots up against us. They challenged us, hung tough, and didn't quit. On the other side, we didn't as well so I'm really proud of our kids. We had some really good individual efforts from our young ladies."
(On halftime encouragement to the team)
"I just said that we've got to get better. I just wasn't happy. We can't let up so we went for everything we did defensively. It wasn't too many good things and we gave them 27 offensive rebounds, that's ridiculous. You try to focus on something positive but nothing positive came out of that second quarter. We talked a lot about it and they got it together."
(On early morning practice as team punishment)
"It had to be about five, that's the legal time. I told them before the game that we wouldn't practice but by halftime it was looking like we would. We were going to do it."
(On Diamond DeShields' absence)
"Diamond's fine, she could've played tonight but I made a decision after the Stanford game. She could've played tonight, I'm not concerned with her. She could've played 40 minutes if I wanted her to. She was in practice and did everything but shoot the basketball. I'm just looking at it long-term, so if she can rest, then that's great. I'll be honest with you, at halftime I almost sent her up to get her cast cut off but we were okay."
(On how Meme Jackson performed)
"She just needs time and reps in game situations. I think she was challenged tonight and stepped up and did some really good things. I challenged her to get more offensive rebounds, and I thought she came up with two big ones. She is very capable of helping this basketball team. She is going to continue to get better and better. She has practiced hard. She is over being a freshman. She is in great shape, which she wasn't most of the time as a freshman. She can be one of our best defenders. I love her and what she brings and what she will continue to do."
(On Jordan Reynolds' impact in stopping Troy's run)
"With Jordan back in, she is a senior and should be poised. I think we took better shots and weren't quickly shooting the basketball. We were getting easy shots. If you look at the third quarter, we shot a lot in the paint and then kicked out to wide-open threes. We are a good three-point shooting team if we are wide open and that is what we got tonight. We were 11-for-23 and that is a lot for us. They were doubling and tripling down on Mercedes Russell. I just thought we were a little more poised and deliberate on the offensive end. We also started pressing a little bit more."
(On getting Alexa Middleton to be consistent in scoring)
"Alexa is like Meme. It's just game reps for her and being in situations where she is reading the defense. She had a couple of shot fakes where they went by. To me, what is great about Alexa is that she is a great three-point shooter, but she is also one of our best mid-range shooters. If she can master that and continue to do that, she will be fine in the big games. People are going to play her a little more for the three-point shot. She has a great shot fake and can get in the mid-post range."
Tennessee Guard Alexa Middleton
(On second quarter slump)
"I think they said they went on like an 18-2 run, and I think we just let ourselves get frazzled on their press, and we didn't take our time taking the ball out. We tried to dribble too much. I think we just weren't patient with our offense and just moving the ball, and then obviously we didn't box out like we needed to. So we gave up a lot of offensive rebounds in that quarter."
(On how to maintain tonight's career-high scoring performance)
"I mean, just staying consistent on getting in the gym and getting up extra shots. That's what I've been doing, so shooters just have to keep shooting whether you miss or you're not shooting well. So that's all I think it is."
Tennessee Guard Jordan Reynolds
(On Meme Jackson's performance)
"Meme, I'm lost for words for her. I'm so proud of her. This year she's come a long way. She's helped us a lot, and this was her coming-out game I think. She shot the ball very well. She had great offensive rebounds. You know she was consistent in that area, and obviously her defense was solid, so I think this was just a great game for her. Hopefully she builds off it and continues to do this for us for the rest of the season."
Tennessee Forward Jaime Nared
(On getting caught up in Troy's style of play)
"I don't think we did a really good job of playing our game. I think we fell into playing Troy's game, which is fast and up-tempo. They score a lot of points. I think they scored like 80 or 90 a game, something like that. So we just have to understand who we are. We're not going to get in and shoot 99 times a game, but I think we fell into how they play. And we've got to figure out how to not do that and not turn the ball over so much."
(On what was said at halftime)
"Well our second quarter obviously was terrible, so they were just talking about it. We actually got out to a good start, and we've struggled with that this season, as you guys have seen. So we finally get out to a good start, and then our second quarter is horrible. So they were just saying to basically pick it up because they went on a 19-2 run at one point. They were saying, `Pick it up, this isn't you guys.' And to basically start out the second half with a bang or else we're going to have practice tomorrow morning."
Troy Head Coach Chanda Rigby
(Opening Statement)
"I think my team did a really good job coming back in the second quarter. We won that quarter handily. Our goal is to put more quarters together like that to become a team like Tennessee. We got too far in the hole in the beginning. Our faith didn't waiver. We had a couple things that changed the momentum at the beginning at the second quarter. We went without advantages right there. Our goal in the second half was to not get into the hole so much as we did at the beginning of the game. We didn't right away, but during the course of the game, our post players got into foul trouble, and several things happened where they did get a big advantage. I am proud of the fact that we only scored two points under our average. We're one of the nation's leaders in scoring. One of our goals was to keep scoring fast, which we did a good job of tonight."
(On the offensive attack being relentless)
"We practice with a seven-second shot clock every day. Our first and last drill at practice is scoring fifteen points in five minutes. We figured that if we can get to where we can score 15 points every five minutes in the game, we'll average 120 points in a game, and that's what we're striving for."
(On how proud she is for playing so hard in the second quarter)
"We didn't let them go home for Christmas easily. One of our goals at Troy in basketball is to be a proper reflection of the institution we represent. This is what Troy University is about. It's about taking average people and equipping them to do great things, and never quit. A lot of times, in the history of our athletic department, we upset people. We cause trouble with bigger teams a lot of times. Not so much in women's basketball yet, because this is a program that's growing and getting on our feet, but it's coming. I can see it's coming. Holly Warlick and her staff did a great job putting together a game plan. I think they did a great job, when we got that momentum, to keep their head and talk to their team. Because, on the other hand, a lot of other teams would have folded in that situation, because of how much we outscored them in the second quarter. They kept their composure."
(On coming back from a big deficit during in the first quarter)
"We've been down 25 points with six minutes to go in the game, and come back and won, because we do score really fast. But, we've never done it against this talented of a team before. That was a step in the right direction for us, showing that no matter who we play, if we keep going with our style of basketball, we can score a lot of points really quickly, even when we're down."
(On Amanda Mendoza's toughness against Tennessee)
"When I saw Amanda Mendoza play at her junior college, I knew I had to have her. No other division one offered her. In fact, everywhere she wanted to go, told her she was too small. That is the type of mentality I want on my team. I want everybody else to have told them, maybe, that they couldn't do it, and I want them to have the guts to prove them wrong."
(On Troy's press becoming more effective after Jordan Reynolds' two fouls in the second quarter)
"I saw a little bit of doubt in a couple of their ball handlers' eyes. They were missing a couple people tonight that would normally handle the ball for them. That was our goal, too, was to try and attack that. We wanted to plant a seed of doubt in a ball handler's eyes. It doesn't matter how many All-Americans you have, if you can create that doubt, you can do a lot with it."
