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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 2, 2007

DULUTH, GEORGIA

THE MODERATOR: Joining us from LSU, head coach Pokey Chatman, Rashonta LeBlanc and Erica White.
Coach, if you could start with an opening comment and we'll take questions.
COACH CHATMAN: I'll start with obviously what won this basketball game for us. It's our defensive prowess, and that's why these two young ladies are sitting up here next to me. Oftentimes that goes unnoticed when you have a game of runs and one team is up 18 and it's a 16-2 run.
I thought Rashonta LeBlanc did an excellent job limiting Armintie Price to one offensive board, and Erica White on her contested shots with Awkward.
When you're able to get that type of pressure on the perimeter, it helps your team defense pick up. That's the reason why we were able to be successful tonight.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. You seemed to have some trouble getting it into Sylvia at times. What was the problem?
COACH CHATMAN: Several problems. Problems in the first half, nine turnovers. Sylvia is 6'6" with a vertical. That's increased this past year by three more inches. We were keeping her on the level with everyone else.
Entry pass to Sylvia has to come off some ball reversal, moving the defense. We were just a little bit anxious there. They turned us over. We played a little bit hurried. I credit the defense. We knew what they were going to do and we finally settled in and got a little bit of rhythm offensively.

Q. Talk about what you all did defensively, maybe the main game plan coming in.
COACH CHATMAN: There's always scouting report defense in terms of how you want to handle screens, how you want to guard certain people, if they're coming off of screens. We decided to shortcut some screens as it related to Price, meet her off at the pass. I thought Rashonta did a good job. That's only about 25% of it with Armintie.
She's been known to go get the balls that she's not able to score and teammates. You can't be excited with just contesting the shot. But it started there on Price in terms of us limiting her options.

Q. I guess you didn't get what you wanted, you were having trouble trying to get something from the forward position. You had Porsha in there, and then you put Ashley when you could. But then Mesha, she didn't have great numbers, but she did give you some clutch moments in the game. Talk about what you got from that position, her play?
COACH CHATMAN: You're right. I thought the last three minutes of the first half is where Mesha did an excellent job for us. She was able to move a little bit better laterally and help some of the perimeter players on that ball screen, help when they would run the down screen and the slide-across option for Price. She was there. She is has a little bit more mobility and some height.
We didn't get to this, but we thought she could help us a little bit in the middle offense because she had a height advantage. But those last three minutes of the first half were huge with Mesha in there rebounding.

Q. Both players, could you talk about the spells that you had in this game where you went scoreless: Five minutes at the beginning and the six minutes where Ole Miss got back into the game? What's happening there? What can you do to correct that?
ERICA WHITE: I felt like we kind of let up defensively. We didn't continue to put a lot of pressure on Ole Miss. They got a lot of free-throws, open looks. I credit Ole Miss for knocking the shots down. I feel like it was our defense. Offensively we just didn't attack. We didn't continue to a attack. Didn't try to get in ball in the paint, whether it be off penetration or post feed.
We kind of did it to ourselves, but luckily we were able to battle back and get out of it.
RASHONTA LEBLANC: I feel the same way. We let up a little bit on defense. We waited too long to attack on the offensive end. The pressure was on us. We put the pressure on ourselves. That had a little to do with it.

Q. Why are you so glum?
COACH CHATMAN: Focus.

Q. What is the deal with Sylvia's shoulder?
COACH CHATMAN: She just wanted a rubdown from the trainer, that's all. She's fine. Just fell on it. She has one bionic shoulder from surgery. She's doing fine.

Q. You took great offense at the call with 7:50 left in the second half on Sylvia. Were you thinking afterwards, I might get a technical foul here? Were you like, I got to say something? You wanted too make your point?
COACH CHATMAN: I swear it didn't feel like you're describing it. That's why I have this puzzled look on my face. I have to show some poise, like I expect my point guard to be poised at the point.
Every now and again it just grates at me with Sylvia. She's 6'6". She's difficult to handle. I guess I just needed to fight for her.

Q. Erica obviously had a huge night offensively. How important was that for her to break out not just in this game but the last few games?
COACH CHATMAN: It's huge. There's been a couple times when E was the only one scoring and we weren't as successful. But the free-throws at the end of the game. I don't care what the total is -- I do care what the total is -- but those free-throws were huge. She stepped up there. She wanted to take them.
It gives you so many options because it came as a three, it comes with penetration, comes off of her steal. The one at the end where she got the layup. It's awesome when you can get double-digits out of your point guard. But also the defensive pressure she can apply to their point guard is what helps us the most.

Q. Can you look ahead to Tennessee and what are the keys to that game? You played them 10 days ago. There's a lot of familiarity there already.
COACH CHATMAN: Yeah, you know, you go back -- I can easily tell you what the key is going to be. We gave up 20 offensive boards last time. If you're going to defend at the clip that we've been defending, pick up your paycheck at the end of the week and get the rebound. You put in so much work.
That's a good thing. You hold a team to 20 points below their average, you're supposed to win. But we didn't. That's because there's no defense with second-chance points. I think that's the first place to start.
Then we can't allow them to turn us over. A turnover with Tennessee is a layup. We'll be ready.

Q. The game tomorrow, you play it more for winning the championship of this league? Your seeding for the NCAA tournament? All of the above?
COACH CHATMAN: Everything. It's that time of year, it's a great opponent that can test you in ways that will tell you the most about your team going into the third season, which is NCAA tournament.
We've always had battles with Tennessee. There won't be any secrets. The scout is out on us and on them. It's a matter of who can bump it down for 40 minutes and dig their heels in and get it done.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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