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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 5, 2009Ashley HoutsAndy LandersAngel RobinsonNORTH LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS Georgia – 82 THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by Georgia, victory over Kentucky 62-84, joined by Ashley Houts and Angel Robinson. Double double, 10 rebounds, 12 points, we'll ask Coach Landers for an opening comment. COACH LANDERS: I'm just proud of our team. I thought we did some things very, very well. I also think that we didn't do some things very well at all. I'm proud of 'em because they fought through and overcame the things that we weren't doing particularly well. I'm particularly proud that we were down and fought back strong, quick and hard. We made a run that was fueled by good defensive play and good offensive play, we made stops, we took the ball down the floor, cashed 'em in and went down 6 or 7 but we weren't there very long. We made the stops and forced turnovers and we got the ball and were able to make some offensive plays and then we just kept going, built on it. I think that one of the things we're starting to learn is that we can play much better tired or when they think they're tired, but they believed more than they believed that they could during the regular season. We finished some games very well. Q. Early in the second half, Ashley it looked like you hit your head at one point and went down, so if you could describe what happened there. And Coach, you said she hasn't come out of a game in a while, were you concerned there? COACH LANDERS: No, because she got hit in the head. If it had been her leg or ankle or shoulder, I would have been concerned, but when I seen her rubbing her head, I thought we would be okay. Q. Ashley? ASHLEY HOUTS: It was a very physical game and if I can recall correctly, I think I just took an elbow from Christy Marshall, who pulled a board, and she came down and hit me in the head, but it's part of the game and you just have to go with it. Q. Coach, when Kentucky made that run in the first half, you seemed frustrated and they took the lead there at the half. Talk about what you talked to the team about at halftime and how you came out the second half. COACH LANDERS: What I talked to the team about and what was frustrating was how we put 'em on the free-throw line, a third of their points they had at the free-throw line. They had 12 rebounds, offensive rebounds by halftime. The very things that we didn't want to do or some of the very things, and things that were important that we didn't want to do, we had 13 turnovers. Then we shot the ball 52%. But we turned it over enough and we were giving them second opportunities enough, or they earned second opportunities enough to stay in the game and that was the frustrating piece. Seemed like there was a second part of the question. The second half -- Q. What you did to come back off the frustrating first half. COACH LANDERS: I sat down for about the first 5 minutes of the second half because we started the second half, you know, we looked like Mo, Larry and Curly. They scored the first shot off the offensive set that we practiced and we didn't even know where to find anyone. Then we come down and turn the ball over and they go in and lay it up. It was -- you know, it was kinda horrible sitting there watching it. So I just sat down. It was kind of offensively, we let it run through our system and waiting for a time-out to see what they wanted to do about it. Q. Ashley, you guys have gone through adversity this season. Did those experiences help when you guys were going through the first half and the beginning of the second that you could fight back? ASHLEY HOUTS: Yeah, definitely I think that we've had a lot of ups and downs. And here in the past few games we've really been able to play hard and had hustle plays and, you know, just everybody playing hard. That's when you have the best time and that's when you do good things, when you're out there playing hard together. I think that has prepared us for times when we think we're tired or we think -- things aren't going our way and we fight back, and that's something that has built our confidence. Q. Angel, you were 6 for 7, and the team as a whole shot 64%, only one player didn't shoot 50%, and I won't mention her name right now. Just talk about how you guys shot today and what do you account for the 55% shooting? ANGEL ROBINSON: I'm trying to get my mind around this, I'm excited about winning the game. I'm sorry about the question, I'm just -- that huge turn-around that we had in the game, it was totally amazing because I looked up at the scoreboard, and it's to the point now where you've got to play hard or get off the floor. I was thinking, I don't want to end up falling short no more, taking it game by game, we have Vandy tomorrow and I'm just... Q. Angel, Coach said that you guys are learning to play better when you're tired. Do you see that as well? ANGEL ROBINSON: Yeah, you play better when you're tired. If you're too energetic, you probably make a mistake and you have second thoughts about what you're going to do. I think we put the ball -- we didn't think about being tired at all. We can't afford that. Can't afford to let that happen. Other teams, they are going to see it and they are going to try to outrun us or outplay us and we're not going to let that happen. Q. What about your NCAA tournament hopes? Now that you've won, where do you think you stand? COACH LANDERS: I think we've got another wonderful opportunity tomorrow with Vandy. I don't think it is important for us to evaluate it on a minute-by-minute basis. I think what's important is, really, we're in the SEC tournament and trust me, I know, our team can't think about vanilla and chocolate, you know, two choices, so we don't want 'em thinking about the NCAA. This is where we are and this is a big deal and this is a wonderful opportunity and that's all they need to be concerned about. We play a team tomorrow night that we split with, we played 'em very well at our place and they played us very well at their place. We played 'em very well, I thought had a reasonably good chance to win the game in Nashville and here we go again. If we can win that, then we get to hang around and play a third day. When we're playing good, we're having fun. Now everything that happened out there tonight wasn't a whole lot of fun for me, and I'm sure it wasn't for them because I tend to share what's not fun for me, I tend to share it with them. We want to do as much winning as we can do right here, right now. Q. Ashley, you did come out for a minute, what was that all about? COACH LANDERS: Can I answer? Q. Sure. COACH LANDERS: I made a bad decision. I went soft for about 30 seconds. And I don't do that very much. The reason I took her out was obviously, you know, going to play tomorrow, give her rest, but the reason I put her right back in is I didn't think through that decision. I let my heart get in the way of my brain. Once I looked out there and realized I had taken her out of the press and foul situation, she's easily the most confident free-throw shooter that we have. And in that kind of a situation, all of a sudden I put a freshman out there in her place, I didn't want to do that to the freshman and I didn't want to do that to our basketball team. Q. I think the team shot 73% in the second half, they all weren't layups, that's an awfully good shooting percentage. And then you talk about getting tired, but it seems like you still shot well. COACH LANDERS: Our kids executed very, very well. First, there's three pieces to this. One, they made plays. And that's something that coaching doesn't have a whole lot to do with. They knocked balls down on the defensive end, those are players making plays. And they made plays, and that's when we -- what we weren't doing earlier, we were not making plays. The offense was not working, and I think what the players have to understand is that the offense doesn't work if the players don't work. So the second thing that happened, we executed, players make plays, teams run plays. We execute very well as a team and we ran our stuff very well as a team. And the end result in that was Puleo got shots that she shoots, Christy got shoots that Christy shoots. And the bottom line is everybody is getting shots out of our offense and they're all on today, so the percentage is really, really good. Q. Coach, you had four players in double figures, but Meredith seemed to give you guys a spark. COACH LANDERS: She sure did. Heck, it's been a long-time coming. That 'ol rookie, we needed her tonight. I just felt like, you know, her help defensively with Pooh, who was getting fingers on balls on top of this all, Pooh was getting her fingers on the ball and Meredith kinda got the press. She and Ashley got the press jump started and Christy kicked in, and all of the sudden we turned it around with the press. Then she made two very nice drives and a great choice to shoot a three. She was really very good, very good. So I thought her play right there defensively and offensively was instrumental in changing the momentum of the game. But you know, I gotta tell you, because it wasn't something that everybody on our team did. Puleo probably got more deflections than anybody. She did a nice job today. That's something that we need for everybody to do a better job of. There she is with four steals. That's -- and she didn't press the first half. She didn't get shots the first half. She got some opportunities the second half and cashed 'em in, so it was a good day for her, too. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach, thank you, ladies. Congratulations. End of FastScripts |
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