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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 2, 2018Jordan FrericksRobin PingetonAmber SmithNashville, Tennessee Georgia - 55, Missouri - 41 THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement from coach. ROBIN PINGETON: I just I'm really proud of our girls. I thought we did a really nice job on the boards. We knew a big key was going to be to really take care of the ball and I would have thought if we had 14 turnovers we would have put ourselves in a really good chance to have success. Tough night shooting. Some of them were contested shots, some of them were shots should have fallen for us. But we hung in there, we didn't let our offense dictate our defense, and I thought we did a good job defensively on them. They got too many points in transition off our turnovers. Tough game. I'm proud of my team though. I'm really proud of my team. I love these girls to death. THE MODERATOR: Take questions for the student-athletes. Q. For either one of you, what did they do defensively that made it so difficult to kind of convert anything inside? JORDAN FRERICKS: Georgia's a good defensive team and they just really got into our ball handlers and all of us, really, just kind of pressured, were aggressive defensively and kind of set us up at times and other times we did it to ourselves. Q. In the third quarter it seemed like they kind of went on two big runs there. What was different from what they were doing offensively or defensively in that quarter specifically? AMBER SMITH: Like she said, they increased their defensive intensity and they caused some turnovers and they exploded in transition and also some of their half court sets they got some good looks. THE MODERATOR: All right, thank you. Take questions for coach. Q. Sophie was able to get her hands on the ball a fair amount of times, I think she took 17 shots, but it seems like a lot of them were pretty contested. ROBIN PINGETON: Yeah, I thought some of them were rushed shots. I thought some of them were good looks. It was a physical game for her. I think she kind of got tired there, didn't have her legs a lot of the times, but I thought she really competed. I think she's one of the best in the country and I tell you what, I'm really glad she's on my team. Q. Two lowest point totals of the season both against Georgia. What are they doing differently that is stifling the offense? ROBIN PINGETON: I think we just get sped up a lot with our ball handlers and there's some opportunities to swing the ball, but they're just such good on-ball defender's that it really makes it hard to see the skip pass. I felt like in the first quarter we were just playing at a pace that wasn't good for us. Way too much over-dribbling. In the second quarter I thought we did a much better job of catching it, facing and trusting the screening action. But I thought we had some good looks, you knock down some of those looks, I think you are looking at -- it feels a little bit different, there's enough contested shots that make it hard, but when you don't even knock down your good looks, it makes it really for a long night. Q. What's kind of the message to the team going forward in the NCAA tournament? ROBIN PINGETON: I'm really proud of them. I mean we're sitting at 24-7, it's been a great run. The chemistry, the unselfishness has been outstanding. We have done a lot of things this year that we haven't done for a long time at Mizzou and it's not over. Thankfully this isn't it, we want to make sure we send our seniors out on a good note. We want to make sure that we continue to let it all hang out, put it all out there for our seniors and this group will, this group will. I think we got a little fatigued tonight and a little rest will be good, but we know it's one game at a time in the NCAA tournament, but we're hoping to make a deep run. Q. In the past you said this team is grittiness and blue collar. When you play a team like Georgia that kind of matches that how tough is it to prepare yourself in a way and play a team that plays the same way you do? ROBIN PINGETON: I don't know if we play quite as physical. I just saw, maybe not as active on ball pressure. We play more personnel where they're just so athletic and they got a great first step and really can, I think, get you sped up. But you're in the SEC and on any given night anything can happen. And there's a lot of good teams in this league, a lot of good teams, you're playing against some of the best of the best, future WNBA players, so every night's going to be a battle for you and that's what you go through your whole conference season. Q. What was your message to the team after a pretty frustrating and difficult third quarter? ROBIN PINGETON: Just going to hang in there and embrace the ugliness of it. We were, it was the same kind of game when we played them about a month and a half ago. I thought going into that fourth quarter, I think we were down, I don't know what we were down at the time, but there was plenty of time and we just kept talking about defense and rebounding, chipping away at it. We knew it wasn't going to be easy, but we wanted to stick together and really focus on our defense and rebounding on a night that offense was hard to come by for us. I thought they did that. Q. On the flagrant that Sophie received what was the explanation that they gave you guys when they brought you in for the conference? ROBIN PINGETON: After several reviews they felt there was an elbow that was extended. THE MODERATOR: All right, thank you. ROBIN PINGETON: Really appreciate you guys coming out. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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