SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 4, 2021

Ryann Payne

LSU Lady Tigers

Postgame Press Conference

LSU 71, Mississippi State 62

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Ryann Payne. We'll open it up for questions.

Q. Give us your general thoughts on the game today, and the matchup tomorrow against Texas A&M.

RYANN PAYNE: Overall I feel like Coach Nikki and the staff prepared us really well for this game. We had taken an L last week against them. We were coming for vengeance. We're just really excited for tomorrow's game.

Q. I'm not sure you thought you'd be sitting in this chair today, but that's a tribute to you, your performance. You gave your team a huge lift. Talk about coming in and playing your best today.

RYANN PAYNE: Yes, sir. Appreciate it.

We only need everybody on this team. If one person gets in foul trouble, someone has to step up on the bench. I'm just glad everybody was ready and we were locked in all game.

Q. You have been waiting for a moment like this. Talk about the shoulder surgery. Did you think you were out for the whole year?

RYANN PAYNE: Yes, sir. I got cleared -- I didn't necessarily get cleared. I didn't think I was going to get cleared for this season. I'm just humbled and more than grateful to be back towards the end, to get a couple of licks in the SEC, help my teammates any way I can.

Most of the season I've been rehabbing working my way to get back. I'm just grateful I'm back early.

Q. Khayla said in the postgame that you had to get back to LSU brand of basketball; kind of almost fight for it a little bit. Looked pretty physical out there. How did you get back to the LSU kind of brand of basketball today?

RYANN PAYNE: I think ultimately getting back to the LSU brand of basketball we were playing is going 40 minutes straight, all in, everybody is locked in. I think our issue was, especially last month, we just weren't entirely playing all game, 40 minutes, strong and hard. We were taking breaks.

I'm just glad that we persevered this game. Everybody was locked in. I'm just so happy we got the win.

Q. Can you talk about coming off, what was different after halftime this game versus last game? You were up by eight at half last week. They put it in overdrive in the third quarter. Was it more on the defensive end?

RYANN PAYNE: Yeah, last game we were up at the half. I think we kind of got a little too comfortable. But this game we made sure that we were up at the half and we are keeping our foot on the gas. We are not letting up.

So, yeah, I think we just made that a goal of ours, to continue to push on the gas, make sure that we keep our foot on their necks, not let them come back.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much.

RYANN PAYNE: Appreciate it.