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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 4, 2010Nell FortnerJordan GreenleafAlli SmalleyDULUTH, GEORGIA Auburn – 74 THE MODERATOR: We have with us Auburn head coach Fortner. Coach, if you could make an opening comment, we'll take questions. COACH FORTNER: I thought we shot the ball really well today. That definitely makes a big difference in a game. But it was good to see us hitting over half of our shots. I thought the second half was a really good defensive effort by us. Steffi Sorensen had a really good first half. We talked about that at halftime, that we didn't want that to happen to us in the second, and it didn't. Felt good about our defensive effort in the second half. Alli Smalley had a career day. Jordan Greenleaf continues to be a warrior for us. In the big minutes she plays, she just anchors us down. I thought it was a great team effort. Everybody contributed from the starters to the bench on down. Just a good day for us. But it's just one game, and time to move on. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions. Q. Talk about how you were able to still score points with KeKe getting in foul trouble? COACH FORTNER: KeKe creates a lot of problems on the floor defensively because she is always a scoring threat. Always. So you have to pay attention to her, usually with more than one person. So it just allowed -- opened some things up for us on the perimeter, but I thought she did some nice things for us before she got into foul trouble. What she did for us helped us win the ballgame, even though it was early. Hopefully she can continue to be that presence for us in the paint. Q. You really haven't been a three-point shooting team all season. Did things open up differently? COACH FORTNER: I think we are a three-point shooting team (laughter). We have three-point shooters in Alli and Blanche. Those two are dangerous all the time. We might not have shot the highest percentage we wanted to shoot. If you start shooting it now, I'll take that. So we'll see what happens. Q. Can you talk about tomorrow's game playing Kentucky, coming off a big win, a lot of confidence going into tomorrow's game. COACH FORTNER: I mean, you know, in this tournament, every team is gunning for each other. It doesn't matter if you played them the last regular season game or the middle. It doesn't matter. Everybody is trying to play for the same thing, and that is to win this tournament. Doesn't matter how you come in here. Everybody starts from the same place. So it's a game that we'll prepare hard for. We know that Kentucky is a really good team. They have Player of the Year, freshman of the year, coach of the year. My gosh, they're tremendously talented. But we feel good about how we're playing. We'll get out there and see what we can do. Q. Alli, talk about your game. Have you seen that many open three-pointers all season? ALLI SMALLEY: Yeah, it was actually really nice. I did have some good open looks. That can be contributed to Jordan. She sets some great screens for me. I was able to come off. I had a lot of open looks, a lot of air. I was able to get the shot off. Q. Jordan, were you happy to create those looks? JORDAN GREENLEAF: I'm always trying to create things for Alli because I know she's our primary scorer. The ball needs to be in her hands. I'm always looking to screen to make sure she's open. Q. What were they doing to allow you to set those up? Was it the matchups? JORDAN GREENLEAF: Yeah, depending on who was guarding who. When I don't have the ball or whatever the play is, I'm always looking to find where Alli is, where her man is so I can get her open. Q. Can you talk about tomorrow's matchup with Kentucky. ALLI SMALLEY: It's a huge game for us. We just came off a win from them. Obviously going to be tough. They have one of the best defenses probably in the SEC. They're hard on you, a lot of trapping. We'll just have to prepare for that and handle their pressure. JORDAN GREENLEAF: I'm excited to play them again. I'm excited to play anybody. I think it's going to be a good game. Our whole strategy is going out there and having fun. That's what we've been doing these past couple games. They have a great defense, but we have a good defense, too. It's going to be a good game, a battle of the defenses. Q. Alli, what did you do different on Steffi in the second half? ALLI SMALLEY: Well, we had Parrisha on her. Parrisha did a great job of blocking her down in the second half. We weren't switching off on her. She was chasing her the whole way, was contesting every shot, and she wasn't getting hardly any looks. P did a great job defensively. Q. Does your guys' offensive mindset change when KeKe gets in foul trouble and she's not getting the calls that she sometimes gets? ALLI SMALLEY: No. JORDAN GREENLEAF: Everybody kind of has a green light. If we're in a set, it takes two people to guard KeKe. If she has two on her, somebody else is open. Whoever has the ball, has the best look, gets the shot. Q. Can you talk about the game Blanche has. COACH FORTNER: I thought Blanche, she's such a great complement to Alli because it just gives you shooters on both corners. Blanche is back at home. Buford is right up the road, so back in her old stomping grounds. I thought she did a good job today. She is a very confident shooter. Some nights she's not on, but she's a very confident shooter. Tonight it looked good. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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