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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 6, 2009

Marshae Dotson

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS

Tennessee Â– 71
Florida - 67

THE MODERATOR: Joined by Florida, Coach Amanda Butler, Marshae Dotson with 20 points, 6 rebounds, 5 steals. Sha Brooks had 22 points. Coach, if you will start with opening comments?
COACH BUTLER: Obviously we're disappointed in the way we played the first half. Tennessee is exceptionally well coached, they're very talented, and you can't put yourself in a position versing this team in a program -- with a program like that, you can't put yourself in the position that we did in the first half. And it's going to be miraculous to be able to come back from that, but we weren't too far from miraculous because of our fight.
I was very proud of our second half effort. I think we had opportunities, just got to be okay with Tennessee in losing, a lot of people have, but that's not this team. They battled and fought and weren't going to go down easily. And obviously we won the second half but the ballgame is two halves.

Q. Sha, you were obviously hurting in the first half after Kelley Cain fell on you. Looked like something was wrong with your neck. Can you tell us what the injury was and how much it did bother you?
SHA BROOKS: She fell on my neck, and I just had to get over that. The coach said we have a ballgame to play. I did kind of let it take me out of my game, but I'm fine right now.

Q. What was the difference from a Tennessee perspective in the way they played tonight and the way they played against you in Gainsville?
COACH BUTLER: Um, you know, they're a team and a coaching staff, that it doesn't make any difference what the make-up is of the team, they're going to continue to get better.
And this is the time of the year that Tennessee seems to play their best basketball, which is absolutely a credit to Pat and why she continues to reset all the records she does.
But Angie Bjorklund played a fantastic ballgame and did a great job leading the team and coming off a night last night where she didn't score a point but we knew that wasn't going to happen again.
I don't think there was any one thing in particular, it's hard to look at it, analyze the Tennessee perspective. We didn't play two halves of basketball tonight, but when we were in Gainesville we did.

Q. Sha said it bothered her, the injury, what do you think about that? Did you think about maybe taking her out of the game completely in the first half because she wasn't shooting the way she normally does?
COACH BUTLER: There was no question that Sha was going to play in the ballgame and that's not because of a decision that I made, but that's because how competitive and tough Sha is.
Our game was very physical tonight, and these two guys battled. Marshae seems like she gets fouled on every single play. There is going to be bumps and bruises and falling down and sometimes somebody lands on your head and sometimes they land on your neck, and that's one of the things that makes these two so special is they do get back up and keep fighting.
I think Sha displayed tremendous toughness and she might have missed a few shots but I don't think her neck had anything to do with it. I think Tennessee defense might have a little bit to do with it as well, and I don't think anybody on our team, certainly not our coaching staff, had any less confidence in her because she got a little shook up in the ballgame.

Q. Marshae, could you talk about defending Kelley Cain. It looks like her presence inside, she draws so much attention it opened things up for Bjorklund on the outside.
MARSHAE DOTSON: We had to stay low on her, planning to play baseline on her to help out with our guards, but I guess they kind of got held up in helping us and get her some free shots.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies.

End of FastScripts

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