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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

February 28, 2018

Nashville, Tennessee

Arkansas - 88

Vanderbilt - 76

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Arkansas Razorbacks' head coach Mike Neighbors along with Malica Monk and Kiara Williams.

MIKE NEIGHBORS: Thank you to Nashville for hosting this event. It does just mean more, you walk in and see that everywhere. It's such a first-class operation and for us to play the best game of the year at the right time just makes me super proud of my team.

THE MODERATOR: We will take questions for the student-athletes only.

Q. Malica, you guys hit 5 or 6 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. What did you see differently in the fourth?
MALICA MONK: I feel like a lot of confidence came in and with everybody coming in making three's, that was an extra boost for everybody, and everybody was filling in so I feel like everybody played a huge role.

MIKE NEIGHBORS: She had a pretty good game.

THE MODERATOR: What was working for you out there today?

KIARA WILLIAMS: I think we all came in the game with the mind-set that we should unlock the first one and we came in with a fire today. I think we were just really prepared.

MIKE NEIGHBORS: I know this question was for her, but I'm going to tell you something she did in practice. We came out of the locker room after film the other day, and I thought they must have done something in film because there was no energy in the gym. I lost it for about 2 seconds and Kiara goes, "Coach, we're good. We're just focused."

You were right, baby! She has been a silent leader for us. I remember our first meeting this year I asked her what she could bring to the team and she said energy and positivity and that's what they she has done all year and I'm so happy for her to have an 11 for 13, 25-10 rebound game in our SEC win.

THE MODERATOR: What was the challenge in turning around from playing Vanderbilt in the regular season and here in the SEC tournament?

MALICA MONK: The challenge for us was rebounding and we knew coming in that we lost the rebounding battle last game and we knew we had to come in extra hard because if we didn't get the rebound we were going to lose the game again. But if we came in neck and neck with them we would have a chance to win it.

KIARA WILLIAMS: I just was worried about the loss from that game, carrying over to this game. I wasn't sure if we were going to keep our heads down, but like my teammates are, we're fighters, we never give up.

THE MODERATOR: Ladies, congratulations and thank you very much. We will now take questions for Coach Mike Neighbors.

Q. Coach, Chelsie Hall had 2 points the other day. What specifically did you do to keep her down?
MIKE NEIGHBORS: I think paying attention to some scouting reports things. Coach Todd Schaefer always prepares a meticulous scouting report. We underestimated her the other day and we got back to that after seeing film. I think a few kids had some personal challenges from looking at it on film, accepted mistakes they had made in the first game and they corrected them.

Q. You said this was your team's best game of the season. Explain that?
MIKE NEIGHBORS: In the way they carried themselves, handled adversity, Mal and Dev get two fouls before the first media time-out, everybody remained calm. Bailey Zimmerman had been sick with the flu. We had a terrible bought of the flu in other area and everyone continued to stay focused like Kiara said. They continue to be resilient, this group keeps showing up. I said it a thousand times this year, this group is like no other team I've every seen. They just keep comin' at you and we shot is well. 12 for 33 is only 36%, and we have been shooting 25 to 26, so it feels like we shot is really well. But they've stuck with it and we always talked about peaking at the right time and I'm so happy we played our best late in the year.

Q. Coach you had a remarkable record leading at the half. How important was that today?
MIKE NEIGHBORS: I think that meant a lot because of momentum. Our group is very inspired by each other's success. When Raven came in and was hot that got Dev going and Dev gets Mal going and Kiara had everybody going and momentum for this particular team carries maybe more so than just the normal word momentum. So going into halftime we were able to have a positive talk, made a few adjustments offensively and defensively and that enabled them to go play a good second half.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much. We will see you tomorrow.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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