SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 8, 2024

Johnnie Harris

JaMya Mingo-Young

Bon Secours Wellness Arena

Auburn Tigers

Postgame Press Conference

LSU 78, Auburn 48

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by Auburn. We'll open it up for the student-athlete.

Q. Jamya, what did you feel like the issue was in the first quarter for you guys to get going tonight?

JAMYA MINGO-YOUNG: I think we turned the ball over a lot. I feel like, I mean, the first play of the game, Angel Reese got the ball and scored in the post. I feel like we didn't match their physicality. We turned it over and they was able to run in transition.

Q. Jamya, you have had a terrific season. You're likely going to make the NCAA tournament. How do you use the next week and a half to get past this? It seemed a little abnormal for you guys.

JAMYA MINGO-YOUNG: Yeah, you just got to take a couple days off, reflect on what it is, what happened in this game. You got to try not to dwell on it because we have a new season coming up. We got to get back to work, get back to the basics, continue to get better over the next week and a half. When we go into the tournament, we don't want to go in there and lose. We have to learn from what we did tonight and just move forward.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Jamya. We'll continue with questions for head coach.

Q. You've had a terrific season. This really seems out of character today. How do you get them to not think about this and think about the season as a whole?

JOHNNIE HARRIS: We kind of talked to them about that in the locker room. Tonight was tough. I do think we came out and they jumped us on us. We came out and we turned the ball over and they got going in transition. It just took us a while to get going tonight.

But this team has been resilient. They have bounced back. We haven't had a loss like this. This team has bounced back. I believe they will. They're a great group of players. I love coaching 'em. I believe in 'em. So I believe they'll bounce back.

Q. McKenna Eddings seemed to come prepared to shoot the ball tonight. How do you try to figure out a way to get her more involved in the offense?

JOHNNIE HARRIS: She actually have been doing that the last few games, which is why she's been getting more minutes. We've been incorporating different things for her. And Sydney, as well. They've both been shooting the ball pretty well.

We'll just have to figure out how to get them more minutes and how to get 'em going, keep 'em going.

Q. Tonight it just wasn't Honesty's type of game. She seemed a little out of it at times.

JOHNNIE HARRIS: Yeah, I thought the last couple of ball games, I just think people have been really physical with her. The difference in the ballgame is we shot six free throws and they shot 31. That's a big difference.

All the other numbers are pretty close, even the turnovers. We had 19, they had 16. But they had more free throws than field goals. They had 27. They made 27 free throws. They had 23 field goals.

It was just a physical game. I thought it was hard. They made it hard for her to get going.

Q. What is your message to Mar'shaun to try to figure out a way for her to get involved in the offense a different way?

JOHNNIE HARRIS: Yeah, I just thought she waited too late. She took a couple of shots. Most of her misses, though, were in the paint. I thought she took a couple of bad shots in the paint. We talked about that.

I actually was okay with the couple of jumpers that she took. She have been making those jumpers in practice. She just need to continue to shoot the ball. She need to continue to work on that.

It was when she was driving, trying to drive too deep, and they were standing there waiting on her. Those were the ones that we got to fix. She has to be able to stop and figure out a way to get the ball to the right people.

But people are sagging off of her because she's not taking the jumper.

Q. What's the plan going forward? Do you give them a couple of days off to rest?

JOHNNIE HARRIS: Yeah, we'll give 'em a couple of days off. We'll still do some individual work. We'll do some defensive practices and then some offensive practices. We're going to mix it up a little bit just to kind of keep 'em going, then we'll give 'em a couple more days off, then we'll come back and get prepared for the tournament.

I really believe with our entire body of work, we should be in the tournament.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach.