South Carolina Head Coach Dawn Staley
On the end of the game…
“I thought we did a good job at containing the point guard so she couldn’t penetrate to the basket and make a play. She found a person under the basket, and I don’t know what happened or who lost their player under the basket. We wanted the ball caught in front of us so we’d have the opportunity to contest and contain it.”
On applying pressure defense earlier in the game…
“You could Monday morning quarterback and say we should have gone to it earlier. Maybe we will try to look at this and put on more pressure a little bit sooner in the basketball game. We’re just short in numbers, but we certainly did a good job at creating some offense from our defense. We are playing a lot of people for a lot of minutes. Lakiesha [Sutton] has got to score and you can’t really take her legs away because at some point you’re going to have to use them. But, [the pressure has] been good for us for the last two games.”
On the trend of falling behind early then coming back in the second half …
“I think it is somewhat easy to play when you are down. You’re freer, and you can take risks. And I think our players play better that way. When we have to play a little more disciplined and more cautious, you second guess yourself. And when you are down and you need to make something happen, we’re best that way. We will probably need to revisit maybe pressuring more in the first half. We just have to conscious of minutes and how tired our players are getting.”
On how certain players are contributing…
“I thought Jewel May played solid. She played 33 minutes, which is a high for her in the past few games. That’s probably the reason why we were able to stay in and get ourselves back in the game. She did a good job at neutralizing Shawn Goff’s production, and she was really good at attacking her. Tonia [Williams] has been on the bench for a long time, and she has finally gotten a chance to get out and play. Courtney [Newton] is going to find a way to mix it up and find a way to shoot the basketball. She’s going to have to take some shots that [Brianna Dickerson] took because she stretches the defense out and she’s comfortable shooting outside.”
Freshman Guard Lakeisha Sutton
On how the play happened after her two free throws…
“After the free throw, I’m not sure what happened. I thought that we had to be aggressive on defense. She [Shantell Black] just found an open player, so it’s not really anybody’s fault. We just needed to play good defense at the end.”
On how it feels to work so hard to come back and not win…
“It’s frustrating, but we know without struggle there is no progress. So we just have to keep trying to get it together.”
On what the defense did differently in the second half…
“We put more pressure on the ball and in the passing lanes. We knew that we were down and had to get back in the game.”
Ole Miss Head Coach Renee Ladner
Opening Statement
“I guess you could say we saved the best play for last. South Carolina did an outstanding job. They put pressure on us, and our players didn’t handle it very well. It’s heartbreaking for Coach Staley because they are fighting for wins, but on the other hand I have to be really happy for my kids because it’s a road win. And naturally you will take it any way you can. We didn’t want to finish the game out that way when we had a 34-20 lead. South Carolina would not go away, and you have to give them a lot of credit. They play with a lot of heart, and we just got lucky to day.”
On the final play…
“I’d like to say I drew it up, but I thought she [Shantell Black] did a great job. I have to give the credit to her because she struggled so badly down the stretch, threw the ball away twice then South Carolina scores. She just kept herself in the game and stayed composed then found the open man. as point guards do.”
On dealing with South Carolina’s comeback and being on the road…
“We have struggled so bad with that. We’ve been in every big game on the road and didn’t find a finish. Today, that’s the best I’ve seen in a while. Somehow today we found a way to finish even though we were not playing very well and it was pretty ugly. We still found a way to make the last play, and I’m proud of that effort.”
