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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 8, 2009

Christina Wirth

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS

Vanderbilt Â– 61
Auburn - 54

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations to Vanderbilt a 61-54 winner today, we have Melanie Balcomb and student athletes, Jennifer Risper and Christine Wirth, both members of the all-tournament team, Christina Wirth M.V.P. of the all-tournament team. Coach?
COACH BALCOMB: First of all, sorry for my hair, I apologize. I'm just really proud of the way our kids fought through the whole tournament, but I'm really proud of the execution of a game plan. That's not easy to do, and having kids believe in what our game plan was and execute it as well as they did today. It was awesome to watch as a coach.
The two seniors next to me, I can't wait to play again. We've got a while before NCAAs, but I think we're ready to do some great things and I'm excited at how we reacted all game today, with our body language, our confidence and making big plays. When we needed them.

Q. Melanie, you guys have beaten them twice this season, only one other team was able to beat 'em, period. What do you guys know that nobody else can figure out?
COACH BALCOMB: We know we can't play 'em straight up, they've got great players. You have to do different things to get them out of their flow on offense, disrupt their offense and limit touches to their shooters, and then you have to fight on the boards.
You have to rebound as well as keep them under control in transition. They're the fastest team up and down the court in transition that I've ever coached against, and we tried to limit those transition buckets.

Q. Melanie, how many different defenses did you use against them tonight, I counted triangle, box, some kind of basic matches --
COACH BALCOMB: No, we actually didn't. We worked on a lot of different things and we've used a lot of things during the tournament, but today we used two different defenses.

Q. Which were?
COACH BALCOMB: We did use three, that's right.

Q. I was close.
COACH BALCOMB: We worked on about six. We used some triangle against 'em, as well as some man and some -- I don't want to give out all our secrets, we've got games to play.

Q. We know about your M.V.P. and all-tournament players, but can you talk about the unsung heroes of your team?
COACH BALCOMB: Yeah, when I was up here the other day, Jen liked when I talked about when one door closes on Hannah, and hopefully we will get her back, but one door opens, and somebody else gets an opportunity.
I just think Tia Gibbs has made the most of this opportunity, and we've gone to a small lineup and moved Jen to the post and brought Tia in and she has played a lot. And I think she has been tough in our defenses as well as hitting big shots for us, big plays.
But as a whole, everybody has stepped up and given us something. She stands out the most because she has taken the most advantage of the minutes, from not playing a lot to playing a lot.

Q. (Away from mic.)
JENNIFER RISPER: They helped prepare us for the game. A lot of players didn't get in tonight, but they helped to prepare us play the game.

Q. You missed your first eight shots to start out, and Tia hit one to take it to six to three after about five minutes. Were you relieved at that point?
CHRISTINA WIRTH: We got off to a slow start, but I guess, you know, 6 points is not too much of a deficit to come back from, and so we said, you're fine, we've just got to go out there and relax and our shots will fall.
As soon as we scored, the game was basically almost tied, it wasn't a big deficit, so we knew we were fine.

Q. Jennifer, you had Bonner, was there anything that you were doing that she seemed to be out of it tonight?
JENNIFER RISPER: Just defense, that's all.

Q. Melanie, Nell said she thought Christine may have played her most inspired or best game that she had seen on tape this year or at your place. Your thoughts on her overall game and Christine's comments?
COACH BALCOMB: Yeah, Tina was big-time tonight. And I mean that in the confidence level that she carried for her team and for herself. I think what was so awesome about Tina is she was so relaxed and not just tonight, but the entire tournament.
I felt good about her being relaxed and it helped her teammates be relaxed and she had a lot of trust in her teammates. Like Jen said, we had a lot of teammates step up and work hard, and it built her trust in her teammates. When she needed to step up, she wanted the ball at all the big times, but she defended the post player on the other team every single game.
If that doesn't wear you out, Tina is undersized to begin with, with no help on the side and helping on the defensive end was the amazing part of it.
CHRISTINA WIRTH: It was a nice comment. If you look at the stats, I didn't shoot well at all, to be honest. I did hit some shots and my teammates found me a few threes at clutch times in the game, but it was a complete team effort.
A lot of times I take a lot of the shots, and I remember one time early on in the season Coach talking to me and saying, you're being selfish if you don't take those shots. A lot of people say you're selfish if you shoot 20 times a game, but she told me for the team to be successful, that's what I needed to do.
And when my shots aren't falling, I'm going to keep takein' them, and it was a great team effort. I couldn't be more proud of our team.

Q. Christine could you talk about the steal there at the end and how you saw that play unfold?
CHRISTINA WIRTH: I turned it over so I was the last one down the floor, and I saw Smalley about to make a skip pass, and I tried to get it to Meredith Marsh, she is an amazing free-throw shooter, but I saw it and I took it.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies.

End of FastScripts

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