March 18, 2007
Columbia, S.C. – South Carolina Head Coach Susan Walvius
“I thought our team did a great job today from start to finish. Transition play was good, defense was good and rebounding was good. I think we play our best ball when we get the opportunity to run. I’m just really proud of our team today.”
“It’s going to be interesting. Hofstra is a team that was a bubble team as most of the teams in the WNIT are. They are a very good shooting team and you can’t look past any team. We have to come out and play well because anyone can win in this tournament.”
“There was a gap in athleticism and depth and our players really just took advantage of their size. We drill a lot recognizing change of possession, our running game is always important in what we do, and Lea Fabbri being healthy is a big part of that because she is a great point guard.”
Melanie Johnson
On the transition game: “Recognizing the change of posession was really important today. I took advantage of my teammates passing abilities and just ran the court.”
“They haven’t really played against an athletic team, like many teams in the SEC. We read the defense and realized that they didn’t really have much of a transition game, so I just took advantage of it.”
Lakesha Tolliver
“I feel that it’s hard to play each other for two weeks so we just wanted to come out and play. That’s what we did, we came out and played and played well because you want your team to win.”
“The seven days of practice didn’t hurt us because that’s what we did during the regular season. The biggest difference was that we didn’t have anything else to do after practice.”
Hartford Head Coach Jennifer Rizzotti:
“South Carolina came out and were ready to play today, even after a couple of weeks off. In the games that I’ve been able to see them play in, this is the best they have played and you have to give them a lot of credit for taking us out of our game plan.”
