Head Coach Dawn On the performance of Courtney Newton
She has been playing well from a defensive stand point so far, but I think the basketball gods were good to Courtney tonight because every shot she seemed to put up went in. I am really happy for her because she has worked. She has worked after having two injuries, and you want her to be able to see her work form into something tangible. Defense is not really something that tangible, and you don’t see it in the stat sheet. Certainly a night like this is one that she will always remember.
On the importance of the win
It is very important for a number of reasons. One, it avenges our loss because we played so poorly in the first half against Georgia; two, a top-25 win definitely helps us; and three is that we are about to go play a couple of SEC opponents on the road. So, we have to find a way to have this focus on the road.
On the progression of the team’s defense
It is getting better. I am not totally satisfied with it just yet, but for where we are trying to go I think there is more focus over a 40-minute game and that is good. I think our defense is finally running how it is supposed to run and it is taking a lot of pressure off of our offense.
Courtney On getting in a shooting rhythm early in the game
As a shooter, once you make your first shot, you get some more confidence, which helped me with my next shot. I wasn’t thinking about it from then on out. Making the first shot as a shooter really helps.
On finally getting a chance to play after injury
As a player you work hard and you want to be on the court and help your team win. With all my injuries I just wanted to keep working hard to get back on the court. I’m glad I got to do that for my team tonight. It was exciting.
Ashley On the momentum of the team after this win
I think this will spark our momentum because we are now on a win streak. I think we are going to take that into the next game. We know how we can play now, so I think that we are going to be more consistent from now on.
Georgia Head Coach Andy Landers
On the play of South Carolina’s Courtney Newton We didn’t consider her an unlikely source of points. What’s difficult is when a team gets 25 percent of their points on five shots by the same person. In fairness, defensively, we should have somehow affected three of those looks. On the other two shots, we played it about as well as we could play it and she still got the 3. You have to give her credit. She is a very good 3-point shooter. We know this, and we did not want her shooting 3s. So it wasn’t a surprise. We have a lot of respect for her. Like I said, we didn’t get there three times. The other two times they did a good job moving us around and getting her an open look, and she was terrific.
On Georgia’s offensive struggles
We didn’t shoot the ball well. I thought the first six or seven minutes of the game we had some good looks. We just left some points on the table by not cashing them in. South Carolina played us very well defensively. They played very aggressive and very hard and definitely contributed to some of those misses.
Porsha Phillip • Senior • Forward
On Courtney Newton’s performance
We knew they were a great 3-point shooting team. We just gave her a lot of wide open shots. Courtney just came to play tonight, and that helped them win the game.
