Jan. 6, 2005
South Carolina Coach Susan Walvius
Opening Statement: “Tonight was a defensive battle. Both teams did a good job of making the offense see an open option real late and then missing. Our plan tonight was to go inside. I felt that our defensive plan was a good one tonight. As much as we outscored them on the floor they did a great job on the offensive boards.”
About MSU shooting 18 FT’s to Carolina’s four: “You can’t control those factors. The things that we can control is rebounds and turnovers. They are something that we need to work on and improve on.”
About Mississippi State’s experience: “We have to learn how to handle those runs. We have kids looking to grow into those roles. They have a lot of experience and getting into SEC play, you are going to see teams go on those runs so we have to learn how to handle it.”
About the defensive game plan on Tan White: “I felt the box and one worked. We ran straight zone, and man but other players on their team stepped up especially Tiania Burns.”
Is Carolina trying to find an identity: “Yes, we are still looking for an identity. We have different strengths from what we had last year and the year before. This year, we have more depth and we could have played more players tonight but we wanted to cut down the rotation and develop more chemistry.”
Sophomore Forward Melanie Johnson
About guarding Tan White and her 33-foot 3-pointer as the shot clock went off: “We had a lot of focus on her. Tan is the key and tried to do our best to take her out of the game but they had other players step up tonight. Her three pointer, what can I say, she is a really good player.”
Sophomore Guard Lauren Simms
About the USC drought in the first half: “It was a big key to the game when they went on a little run to just cut the lead before half. It hurt us. “
About Carolina’s 26 turnovers: “We can’t do that in an SEC game because they will capitalize on it and they did as they scored 25 points off turnovers.”
About USC’s defense holding Mississippi State to 24% field goal percentage: “You can’t really look at that. We have to execute our game plan and we have to take that into the next game.”
Mississippi State Coach Sharon Fanning
Opening Statement: “The best way to describe this team is character. We got to the free throw line tonight 18 times which was huge because we hit 16 of them. Another thing that we did tonight is that we got 20 offensive rebounds against a team that is a lot taller than we are. We hustled, and we maintained our composure after missing some easy shots. We found a way to win. Our girls talked about defense and that helped us and tonight everyone on the team contributed. The bottom line is that a win in the SEC is huge, especially a win on the road.”
About their game plan coming in: “We had a game plan coming in tonight’s game but things got tough and we had to adjust. We stayed with one thing.”
About the first half drought: “We had to continue to take good shots. They felt like they knew they were still in it when we got back down by three points and went into half by four after trailing by 12. At the end of the game, Tiania said, “Let’s go ahead.” Rebounds, defense, and good shot selection wins games. Tonight we got to the free throw line and got easy looks. We also forced 26 turnovers to get more looks.”
Senior Guard Tan White
About starting slow: “We stayed focus. I knew my teammates would step up and help me out. Tiania really stepped up tonight.”
