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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 1, 2007

DULUTH, GEORGIA

THE MODERATOR: Joining us now is Ole Miss head Coach Carol Ross and players Armintie Price and Ashley Awkward.
Coach, if you could make an opening statement.
COACH ROSS: It's a great way to start a great tournament. Our defense, it was interesting. It was very effective with our deflections, our speed and quickness really came into play. Those deflections led to a tournament record steal, 25 steals. We forced 42 turnovers, which is also I think a tournament high.
The defense was very disruptive to Alabama's offense, really allowed us to play to our strengths. When we're playing defense, our whole team gets involved as a team effort. Certainly it allowed us to also take easy shots.
We're happy to be advancing. Obviously we got a tough opponent in LSU waiting on us. But it sure beats the alternative.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Ashley and Armintie, can you talk about putting Sunday behind you and coming out strong tonight?
ARMINITIE PRICE: We're just trying to get a fresh start. Sunday isn't something we can control. It's in the past. We know coming into this tournament, we have to start off positive, take it one game at a time, and that's what we tried to do tonight.
ASHLEY AWKWARD: I don't want to say that I'm happy that we did lose on our senior night, but I'm glad that we got a chance to get ahead, get a feel of the gym, get a feel of the balls and the court. I feel like we're at a little of an advantage.

Q. Coach, can you talk about the advantage of not having the bye, getting bench players in, people with more experience?
COACH ROSS: We were thrilled we blew that by, could get in here early and get that extra game.
You know, when things happen, you always have to look for the silver lining. You got to look for the positives. You know, I love this tournament. I love being here, really and truly. I told the team this. I said, It's almost like we get rewarded because we get to play longer, we get to be here first. There's just so much good in being here. Certainly, you know, we want to stay here a long time. But we understand to do that you got to be successful, you got to win.
You know, you're probably thinking we blew the game on purpose, but we didn't. We did want to beat Auburn. We did want to be successful. But there are always positives you can find. Certainly, you know, we found one. So we're working it.

Q. Are those your sisters up there that dressed up?
COACH ROSS: I don't know those people (laughter). They could look like me and have the same last name, but I really don't know them (laughter).

Q. Do they do it every year?
COACH ROSS: Yes, they have a problem this time of year (laughter). They keep showing up. I keep ignoring them. There is some relation. My mother is a very dignified Southern Belle sitting up there not anywhere near them.

Q. Ashley and Armintie, can you talk about the defense tonight, especially after about the first 10 minutes when it was tight and you shut them down the rest of the half?
ASHLEY AWKWARD: We know that us being Ole Miss, our keys to our victories is our defense, the way we play, the way we get out on people, being aggressive. So tonight we tried to get out and tried to I guess you can use it as a practice, you know, for the rest of the tournament, get in good work, see what we can do, try some new things, get it going.
ARMINITIE PRICE: Kind of the same thing. We just wanted to just stay aggressive, try to jump on them early, try to rotate, move fast, just try to connect on a good level so the rest of the games we could just know what we got to do, just move, just pick up our feet and just play together.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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