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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 7, 2009

Christina Wirth

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS

Vanderbilt Â– 61
LSU - 47

THE MODERATOR: Vanderbilt with a 61-47 win tonight, representing the team is Coach Melanie Balcomb, and Jence Rhoads and Christine Wirth. Coach?
COACH BALCOMB: I think we did a much better job in the second half getting to the rim and offensive rebounding and attacking.
I thought they had a tremendous game plan, took our two shooters out of it, sagged and gave us fits in the first half defensively. I thought the other thing was picking up full court and pressing, I thought we did a great job picking up the pressure and creating tempo so we could get them in transition and start to wear them down.

Q. For most of the game, up until about 8 minutes left in the second half, it was close all the way, tied at 40-40 with about 8 minutes to go, what changed? ) That was the question.
COACH BALCOMB: I felt the pressure. The pressure in the backcourt, it gave us an opportunity to create transition points and turnover and steals and getting us more in transition.
And from that point on, I thought we got better looks wearing them down, making them work hard every possession for more than just half-court as well as pushing the basketball.

Q. Coach, Allison Hightower scored 22 against you guys last time and 23 last night, she didn't have a very good game. Can you talk about what you did to hold her in check.
COACH BALCOMB: We put Mooney and Gibbs on her and kept rotating them. They did a great job of knowing where she was and pressured her and challenged every shot. I just thought we did a really good job knowing where she was and limiting her touches.

Q. We've heard about young teams in the tournament, and Vanderbilt is not considered one, but on a stretch tonight you had two freshman on the floor for a while. Can you talk about that?
COACH BALCOMB: That alley-oop play we're going to have to put in. I just felt -- I said this this afternoon to somebody, I felt like somebody new was going to step up and was going to have to step up tonight, and I don't know why, but it was the two freshman and it was the two freshman.
Jence Rhoads was more aggressive going to the basket, she took more shots. Those three stepped up and got out of their box and their comfort zone and created a mismatch, trying to guard Jordan in the post, it gave us a post presence we needed, trying to guard Jence off the dribble when they focused so much on Risper and Meredith.

Q. Coach, there was a lot of talk coming into the tournament about the parity in the league this year. We've only had two underdogs per se. Can you comment on -- we have the 1 versus the 2 now, and how this is shaping up?
COACH BALCOMB: It's really weird because I thought the same thing, from top to bottom this league, anybody could beat anybody this year, and I thought that happened.
Going into this, we've always -- when we've gotten to the final or won it, we've always been an underdog and a lower seed. To me, this is the highest seed we've ever had and the first time I remember 1 and 2 since I've been in it for 7 years that have gotten to it in the final. Usually there are upsets. It surprised me.

Q. Christina, 3-points, started the 27-1 run to finish it. What did y'all feel going into that stretch when you pulled away?
CHRISTINA WIRTH: I just -- I don't know, it was an amazing three, and I think that right there we just decided every time-out we kept saying 40-40, it was 0-0, and it's going to come down to who wants it more.
And those last 7 minutes we had people step up on every single play on offense and defense, Jordan grabbed a few huge rebounds. It was a battle, both teams were pretty tired toward the end, but we just kept fighting and we didn't stop for 40 minutes, so it came down to hustle plays and attacking the basket. We never stopped attacking.

Q. Jence, same question.
JENCE RHOADS: I think our defense and our pressure made us more comfortable on offense, too. We were able to get some easy baskets and just attack without having all five people. We had numbers every time and we were more comfortable in what we were doing and we were able to pull ahead.

Q. For the players, could you talk about -- your Coach talked about the freshmen stepping up, but you do have an experienced team and I think it showed tonight. Talk about why that's going to be important tomorrow night, especially in a setting like this.
CHRISTINA WIRTH: It's the championship game and we're excited about it. You know, Auburn is an experienced team, too, so I don't think that one team has an advantage in that category, but it's great when you have experienced players on the floor to keep you relaxed.
That's what I was trying to do today when it was close, to say we're fine, calm down, there is a time and a place we need to get everyone riled up. There is a time and place to relax and play our game.
You know, it's nice because last year we were a young team and this year we do have experience, so hopefully we can take advantage of that. We have played Auburn, we're familiar with each other, so the experience factor will be -- you may have to find new ways to score, different ways to get the job done, and we will be okay doing that.
JENCE RHOADS: It will be important to keep our composure. We all look to our seniors, and obviously Meredith as the more experienced -- and the more experienced players because they've all played in a championship game. We'll be looking to them for advice and to lead us as we play tomorrow.

Q. You're still processing this game, but talk about Auburn and how it's more about stopping Bonner, but obviously that's a handful, too.
COACH BALCOMB: I thought I was done! I checked out! I apologize. Tomorrow, Auburn. Yes, I didn't watch the second half tonight, I watched the first half. We just have to play tremendous team defense.
Bonner is very, very good as we know, but the supporting cast is very good, too. It's not like you can take one player out and the rest of the kids are just young. They're very experienced, all upper classmen and this is a game that is going to come down to who wants it more, and I think who plays harder.
Both teams know each other very well, both teams will have a great game plan ready to go. The shortness and the time is not going to matter, we'll both be ready, it will be a good game.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies.

End of FastScripts

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