SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 3, 2022

Joni Taylor

Jenna Staiti

Georgia Bulldogs

Bridgestone Arena

Postgame Press Conference

Alabama 74, Georgia 62

JONI TAYLOR: Obviously, I'm very, very disappointing loss. I thought that Alabama came out and punched first, and we never responded. We could never greet into a groove. Every time that we cut into the lead, they came back and made a big play. Give them credit. They played really hard. They made the big plays they needed to when they were supposed to. We've got to go back to the drawing board and get a lot of things figured out.

Q. Hey, Jenna. So kind of following up on what Coach said about Alabama's early punch. How did that kind of affect things for you guys offensively and then having that translate on the other end?

JENNA STAITI: I would just say that we -- you know, we give things up and not come down on the floor and do what we needed to do offensively. Like Coach Joni said, they punched, and we can't trade twos for threes, and we gave up nine threes tonight.

We need to be locked in defensively. Like she said, we need to go back to the drawing board because we're playing one game -- no next game is guaranteed, so we have to figure it out.

Q. Several times this season y'all have had comebacks in the second half. What was different about tonight?

JENNA STAITI: I really just think Alabama was just super comfortable. They're a great team. If they're comfortable, it's hard to defend, and they had an answer every time we answered. So, yeah.

Q. Jenna, based on the work you guys have done this season and with you guys having an NCAA Tournament opportunity, how can you guys kind of go back to that drawing board? What type of things do you feel like y'all can focus on to get back how you were playing last couple of weeks and early in the year?

JENNA STAITI: I just think it goes back to everyone on the floor needs to know what they're doing. We got to trust our coaches knowing that they're going to put us in the best situation for each -- offensively, defensively and just following the scouting report. If we're supposed to switch a ball screen, we need to switch a ball screen, how do we defend stuff.

I say it all the time, I trust them. Just trust them and things will go our way.

Q. I mean, obviously, in the first quarter there you guys hit a couple of threes on the first two possessions and then it just seemed like Alabama kind of went on the run. Is there anything you can pinpoint as to what led to that run, and you guys have been able to respond, and you guys did in the third, but it just wasn't enough.

JONI TAYLOR: For sure. We came out, hit two there's, and then I think we settled for jumpers. They did a really good job of crowding Jenna, taking away her space inside, and we never made any adjustments in terms of figuring out different ways to get her the ball or posting for the ball, and we settled for threes and or we turned it over. We're not making them defend us, and then they're coming down off of our live ball turnovers, getting scores, getting fouled or they're shootings the three. That's pretty much how the night went.

You know, it got better for us in the third quarter, but every time we made a run, they made a good play. We've got to -- we know teams are going to zone us. It's not a surprise. It should not be a shock, and we have to be more disciplined in making them guard us and attacking and not settling for jumpers all night.

Q. This is something that you've talked about a lot, but do you know how an offensive drought kind of spills over to the defensive end. Do you feel like that was also an issue with just not being able to get those stops after not being able to score on the other end?

JONI TAYLOR: I felt like we were on skates out there a little bit defensively. We didn't protect the rim. They played shooters, stretched us a lot, put Jenna in ball screen situations, put our bigs in ball screen situations where they were getting switched on the guards, and they just attacked the paint, and our rotation wasn't very good tonight in terms of helping.

Q. What does the next week look like as far as preparing for the NCAA Tournament?

JONI TAYLOR: I said it earlier, we have to go back and get a lot of things figured out. We'll have spring break for us at Georgia, so there's no school. So we'll come back and we'll practice and just really, really watch film, critique a lot of things we're doing, and try to get us back on track.