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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 2, 2017Kristy CurryAshley WilliamsMeoshonti KnightGreenville, South Carolina Alabama - 72, Tennessee - 64 THE MODERATOR: I'd like to welcome Alabama. Coach, if you would start us out with an opening statement. COACH CURRY: Just really proud of our team today. I thought that our energy and effort is something that's always within our control. I knew at halftime and told them if we could hold them to 29 the second half, we weren't going to shoot it as bad as we did the first half. Thankfully we made some shots, had confidence in each huddle, had some balance offensively. I thought these two to my left, Ashley really learned a lot from the first experience with Tennessee. Really took some things to heart, came out and did a great job descending and rebounding. Her foul trouble I think was attributed to the fact we couldn't keep them in front of us on penetration, which we've got to do a better job. Meo had a tremendous day. Know when you are being pressured like that, she has the ability to counter. Two things, I told them we had to out-rebound them and make more free throws at the end of the day and make more free throws than they shot. We were able to do those two things. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. Ashley, another SEC coach was saying how much he thought you'd improved from the start of the season until now. Do you feel like you've improved even in the last month from the first Tennessee game to this one? ASHLEY WILLIAMS: Yes. Honestly I think I'm improving every day. My teammates help me out with every mistake I made. Yeah, I think I'm improving very well. Q. Meoshonti, you won three consecutive games against Tennessee. You seem to play with a lot of confidence against them, come out very aggressively. How confident were you going into this game, then even after you fell behind by 10 points? MEOSHONTI KNIGHT: To us, it's just a regular game. We just got to come out and compete every time. It's tournament time, so a team that can fight the longest and play the hardest for 40 minutes is going to win. That's what we strive to do. Q. Ashley, six shots, you blocked three shots. Is this your best shot-blocking game? ASHLEY WILLIAMS: This is not my best shot-blocking game. But I was kind of glad to block most of their shots because I didn't think I would do it. Blocking, it was my job. I'm glad I did. Q. Why do you think you were able to do it? ASHLEY WILLIAMS: I was just focused on getting the ball down the opposite side of the court. If the ball came into my hands, it was just going to get blocked, so... THE MODERATOR: Student-athletes, you are welcome to return back to the locker room. Questions for coach, please. Q. Kristy, was your game plan that much different going into this game as opposed to the last game against Tennessee? COACH CURRY: It really wasn't that much different. We felt like there were some things that we really needed to clean up. If we could execute the game plan at a higher level than we did before, there were little things we felt like we had to fix at times. We needed to do a better job in transition of meeting our posts early and not allowing them to get great position. I thought we did a better job with that today. I thought that our double was more energized and more active than it was in Tuscaloosa. I think our kids a little bit took it to heart. Everyone kept saying Diamond didn't play, Diamond didn't play, Diamond didn't play. At the end of the day, we felt like Diamond played in Tuscaloosa the year before. At the end of the day, it was more about what we could control, that's our energy and effort. To change or defenses, and when we did, be on the same page, I thought we did a better job with that today. Q. Could you talk about Ashley's improvement over the course of the season? COACH CURRY: I have to credit that Shereka Wright, she's done an incredible job with our post players. She is extremely talented. She has learned each and every day. She's had to learn. Her season's already over. It's just the pace and rigors of the SEC and how long the season is. The same thing for Jordan, her playoff, her state championship is done by now. It's how to learn to manage the off the court as much as on the court for our freshmen. I think our coaching staff and training staff have done a great job that. Ashley's come to work hard every day. She has only scratched the surface with the potential that she has and has a chance to be a very, very great player by the time she leaves Alabama. Q. When you fell behind by 10 points, and Tennessee being a very talented team, what was going on with your team then, and how did you pull them together at that juncture? COACH CURRY: Just told them to settle down. I think we called timeout. Our staff did a good job with that. Told them to settle down, that we needed to understand that we can get stops and rebounds. We're only four stops out of it. The pressure was on Tennessee. We had no pressure on us today, to play and to play every play. We'll take at the end of it what's there. We can control our energy and effort on every possession. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. COACH CURRY: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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