NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - BUFFALO VS TENNESSEE

March 19, 2022

Kellie Harper

Rae Burrell

Tamari Key

Tennessee Lady Volunteers

Media Conference

Tennessee 80, Buffalo 67

KELLIE HARPER: All wins are good wins, especially when you get to the NCAA Tournament and you're playing a talented team like Buffalo. I'm obviously really excited to be moving on to play again, and proud of our team.

I thought we knew we had a huge challenge, especially for us on the defensive end, and we held them under their average, and I think that was a huge key to the game.

Offensively we weren't always great, but we were tough and hung in there and gave ourselves an opportunity to play again.

Q. Rae, you really erupted in the second half offensively. What was the difference for you after halftime?

RAE BURRELL: Just my teammates getting me in good positions and just fixing my shot. It wasn't falling in the first half so I knew I had to get it up a little bit because it was a little too long or like to the left. Just fixing it and then my teammates putting me in great positions.

Q. It was only a two-point lead at halftime and then Alexus Dye scored a 6-0 run to come out in the third. Can you describe what that does for you mentally?

TAMARI KEY: Snoop (Alexus Dye) is a spark for us. We know that when she goes in the game, she's going to give it everything she has, going to the basket, grabbing rebounds. We knew that her coming in the third she was going to give us that spark that we needed.

RAE BURRELL: Yeah, she definitely changed the momentum for us.

Q. Tamari, inside what did your team do defensively to really get -- when Adebola Adeyeye and Elea Gaba got in foul trouble early -- and take the inside game out of the equation for UB in the second half?

TAMARI KEY: I think our guards were aggressive getting to the basket. We emphasized at halftime that the guards needed to be aggressive going to the basket and that the posts also needed to be more active in the paint. So, I think with the combination of both of those things, we were able to get their posts in foul trouble.

Q. How was it for you guys overall just the experience of playing at home in the NCAA Tournament?

RAE BURRELL: It's always great playing in front of our fans. They just give us so much energy and we really feed off that. I think it really helped us just to get our energy going and then just to represent our school, as well.

Q. For both players, the quirk of the SEC tournament is you've got two weeks off. Kellie probably had a little mini training camp for you guys. How nice was it to get back on the court and play a game and was there a little rust to knock off after two weeks?

TAMARI KEY: I think for us, the two weeks was really good. We got better every day in practice and we worked really hard. So, I think that was really good for us, and also I think in the game, it's always your first win usually when you're coming back from playing after two weeks. So I think other than that, I think we came out really good in the first quarter.

RAE BURRELL: Yeah, like she said, I think the two weeks really prepared us. When we first got back from the SEC Tournament, we had some really good hard practices that we needed and we also had really good rest days that we needed and then also some bonding in between there.

I think it was really good for us as a team, so then we just came excited to play today.

Q. Rae, Buffalo stayed in this game until the fourth quarter until your three-pointer, two minutes in, put you guys up by 10. What were you seeing then and how important was it for you to make that shot after the first half wasn't really going your way?

RAE BURRELL: I was just thinking be aggressive. Like TK said, the guards needed to be more aggressive, so I was just looking for my shot and I just saw an opportunity and I took it. And then the team did the rest with just making sure we got stops and emphasizing on the turnovers that we were able to cause and get transition buckets.

Q. Tamari, did you think that the good luck gods might be on your side after Striplin hit a three that -- I think it was Sara Puckett -- hit a three, hit the backboard, hit the front rim and fell? Did you feel pretty good at that point?

TAMARI KEY: That's the luck of playing at home, first round NCAA Tournament, being able to host. I feel like the basketball gods just were in our favor today.

Q. Maybe kind of an underrated contributor today was Jordan Walker. She made some big plays down the stretch when it came to getting to the rim and staying poised when Buffalo's defense was really on you guys. What does her composure on the court do for you guys when she's able to get to the hoop and finish like that?

RAE BURRELL: I think it's great for us. She works so hard. If there's a loose ball, she's going to jump on the ground for us. But it's nothing new for us. She does it in practice every day. For us, it keeps the composure for the team and it also keeps the tempo high just by her showing that she's jumping on the floor. And then we're like, okay, we're going to jump on the floor too, so she kind of just leads that.

TAMARI KEY: Yeah, I think to second that, in the first half just playing, me and Rae kind of trying to figure it out, trying to find our shots and stuff like that, just seeing Jo being aggressive and attacking the basket and going to get boards and stuff, it fuels us and it just -- it's fire for the rest of the team.

Q. Rae and Tamari, Buffalo was kind of a trendy pick for an upset, which is kind of understandable. They're a really tough team. What are your takeaways from playing them and their toughness and how much parity there is in women's basketball right now?

RAE BURRELL: It's a tournament. It's anybody's game. Your record or your conference that you play in doesn't matter at this point. It's just who you're up against and like Coach always said, who's going to be the tougher team. They're a tough team but tonight, we were just a tougher team.

TAMARI KEY: I think when you come into this game, they're going to give us their all. We don't expect any team would come in and be intimidated or not want to beat us because we are Tennessee. I think they played really hard today, though. Got to give props to our guards, too, who I think all of them ended up guarding No. 2 at some point in the game, trying to get her to make tougher shots and running around with her on defense. So, I think that was a big help for us today, too, as well.

RAE BURRELL: Yeah, respect to No. 2 because she was making tough shots, too.

Q. For either player, it's going to be tough when you're playing a team like Buffalo that's hitting those threes and responding every time you hit a shot. Is there anything you talked about or said to each other to keep yourselves pumped up and knowing we've got to keep going and not let it get to us?

TAMARI KEY: Respond, like you said. I feel like Coach harped on it before the game. They're going to make tough shots, but it was what we did with those tough shots. We could play good defense, they can make a tough shot, come down make a shot and come back again on defense and guard again. So I think the next-play mentality was really big for us in that aspect.

RAE BURRELL: Yeah, definitely next-play mentality. Whatever happened already happened. All you can do is just, like she said, respond and get it back.

Q. First half shot around 31 percent, second half and the third quarter, you were almost shooting 75 percent in the third and ended up shooting 55 to end the second half. How important is that for you offensively to continue that momentum and to be able to end that whole half shooting well?

TAMARI KEY: I think that's big for us. We need each other to make the shots that we know that we can make. Like putting our teammates in the positions to be able to hit shots, I feel like is really good for us. It gets us going. I feel like our defense gets us going. But coming out in the third quarter, we were really locked in on trying to finish around the basket especially so I felt like that was good for us today, too.

RAE BURRELL: Yeah, definitely. I think when our percentage was a little bit lower in the first half. It was a lot of just missed points around the basket that we weren't taking our time on, that we were just trying to throw back up. I think we really focused on it more in the second half to really take our time and really try to get it in.

Q. The whole point to survive and advance, did you see a little rust that needed to be knocked off after that two weeks or a little bit of a slower start? You actually got off to a slower start but then you sort of hit the brakes on it.

KELLIE HARPER: Honestly, to start the game I didn't feel like we looked rusty. We came out pretty aggressive. They adjusted, called a time-out, made some adjustments, and I thought we got a little passive. I thought we were just a little bit on our heels offensively in the first half. We did at halftime -- they talked about it -- talk to our team about being more aggressive, especially our guards. If they're a little bit more aggressive, whether that's attacking or looking to get the ball inside, I think we would be better off.

I think that helped us offensively.

Q. Kellie, going off what your players said about taking more time finishing around the rim, how big was that for you to see that adjustment in your players to focus and just settle in and make sure they're finishing those, especially going forward?

KELLIE HARPER: Yeah, I mean, we had great looks in the first half, and I told them we're just looking like we're trying to get it up on the backboard somewhere. We've got to finish those. They settled down, took their time and finished those, obviously, a lot better in the second half. We can do that. We can do that. We've just got to have the focus to be able to do it.

Q. Kellie, Dyaisha Fair was really a focus of this team, but what did you think of Georgia Woolley's performance tonight?

KELLIE HARPER: Yeah, they've got two kids that can put up big numbers. Obviously, Fair can get a shot off at any point and she can make them. It makes it very difficult to guard her when you can't keep the ball out of her hands, can't keep her from making a shot. All you can do is make her take tough shoots. But we did lose Woolley a couple times that we left her wide open. Now, she can score also with defense, so you can't give her the wide-open looks, but she's had a tremendous -- both of them have had tremendous seasons this year.

We knew they were going to be -- like I said, they were going to be a handful for us to guard.

Q. Kellie, obviously the focus, just finished the game and haven't had any time to really soak this in, but Tennessee now remains perfect in the first round on this court. Is that one of those things that is a point of pride for this team when you get a chance to look back and think, this is a measure that this team is able to continue?

KELLIE HARPER: Yeah, I hadn't really thought about it. We get here and I know -- you guys are great at pulling up all kinds of stats. Y'all can find something.

But for us, we're just going in and trying to take care of our business.

There is a lot of pride. There's a lot of pride, but there's pride for us in November and December. We don't have to wait until March to feel that.

I think we were excited to get to play here. I'm proud of our team for earning this opportunity, and when you walk out there -- it was a great environment, a great environment to play basketball in. Just happy for our team.

Q. Something you take a lot of pride in it rebounding and you out-rebounded the Bulls, 35-58, but Tamari Key was a huge difference-maker down the stretch. She had a double-double but had eight offensive rebounds. What impact did she have in this win?

KELLIE HARPER: Well, I thought she played much more confident, much more -- played more physically in the second half as she was going after more boards. We were able to get her a few more touches. Now, a lot of it had to do with our guards being a little bit more aggressive. I pulled her over -- I think there was seven and a half minutes to go in the fourth, and I pulled her over and said, 'All right, how many minutes can you go here? I need you in there as long as possible.'

She looked up -- we thought about it, she deliberated a little bit, but she said, 'I can go.' That's why we kept her in, because she was playing well and making a huge difference on the court, on both ends.

Q. Obviously Rae struggled there a little bit to start out. She sort of found her way later, even hit some buckets. How big is it to have a player like that that's able to sort of find their way throughout the game, even when they're not doing stuff right and then turn it around as it goes on?

KELLIE HARPER: Rae got several defensive boards and if your shot is not going in, you've got to find some other way to be productive. She got some boards. I thought she got a couple of easy shots in the second half that sometimes you just need to see the ball go in. She got to the free-throw line. Really proud of her, staying aggressive and staying with it. You know, and staying confident.

I thought she had a really good second half.

Q. When Rae hit that three to go up 10 in the fourth quarter, your team never let them back in after that. How big is that for you to know you guys have that confidence to close out the game like that?

KELLIE HARPER: Yeah, going down the stretch -- my thought process was how many threes is it going to take them to catch up, because you know at any point they can make threes. And I was really proud of our team because I thought we really played with a lot of grit and toughness offensively down the stretch. Usually you see that on the defensive end, but I thought we had it there offensively.

And Rae stepping up, making that shot, getting the ball to Tamari, getting some offensive boards, getting herself to the free-throw line, that was good to see.

Q. A quick thing about Sara Puckett. Did you think you were living right when that ball went in? And about Buffalo, how tough were they?

KELLIE HARPER: Let me answer the Sara Puckett -- I'm so glad you asked me because I wanted to answer it when you asked the girls. All I could think about when Sarah banked that in was how many bank shots people have made on us all season long, and I thought, it's about time that we banked one in, as well. So I felt good about that.

I'll tell you what, I've been pretty stressed over this opponent. Buffalo was really good. Our players knew it. They knew it. They did not overlook them. They understood this was a very good basketball team.

They're coming in hot. They've got a lot of pieces. They're tough. They're not going to back down.

When you have a player that can just go score at any point, it gives you confidence as her teammates that they can go out and make plays.

That's why this is a really good win for us. I know it. I'm proud of it, because Buffalo is tough. They're really good.