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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2019Holly WarlickMeme JacksonEvina WestbrookNashville, Tennessee Mississippi State-83, Tennessee-68 THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Tennessee. Coach, if you could make an opening statement. HOLLY WARLICK: A tough day for us today. Thought we played hard. We didn't play smart at times. Mississippi State is a great basketball team. You can't make a lot of mistakes against them. We battled. We just didn't have enough. It's a tough day, again. But I'm proud of our kids for fighting. Didn't give up. Didn't look at the score, so... THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. Evina, could you talk about their press? At times you struggled to get the ball inbounds. EVINA WESTBROOK: Yeah, our main thing was like our turnovers. We had 26 turnovers. They had 30 points off our turnovers. That really just killed us in itself. We just got to do a better job really just executing, getting the ball under pressure. Q. Evina, do you think you have done enough to get an invitation to the NCAA tournament? EVINA WESTBROOK: I really hope we have. I think my team deserves at least a chance to prove ourselves. I don't want to use the word 'talented', because we're much more than talented. I think so. I would like to think so. I really hope that we have a chance at just trying to prove ourselves, wherever it may take us. Q. Meme, this is the second time you played Mississippi State. The final score may not dictate what the actual game was like. They're No. 5 in the country. Do you think as a team you deserve an opportunity to play in the NCAA tournament? MEME JACKSON: Yes, I do. I think my team is hard working. I think we played them tough today. We didn't give up, kept fighting. I think we deserve a chance, yes. Q. Evina, your thoughts on going head-to-head with Jazzmun Holmes. What was she doing so well? EVINA WESTBROOK: She is a great player. Primarily just her defense is all over. Her thing is trying to keep me busy while I'm trying to run the team or the play and everything. Her pressure was good, as well as her teammates, too. I don't know, you'd have to ask her that question. Q. Meme, you had nine threes the whole game, six of those in the first half. Do you think that trail-off was a result of Mississippi State adjusting to you getting open on the wings or you going inside more? MEME JACKSON: I think we were trying to attack the basket a little bit more. I think we were getting great looks in the first half and second half. We just got to hit open shots. We did a good job of trying to attack them. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies. We'll continue with questions for coach. Q. If you take certain parts of today's game, maybe not that first four minutes of the game, you have pretty good audition tape for the NCAA Selection Committee based on what you did today. HOLLY WARLICK: I thought we played a pretty solid basketball game. The difference is the turnovers. We only got, what, 54 attempts. Those 25 attempts take away a possibility of you scoring. Our kids played hard. Do I think we deserve to be in the tournament? Absolutely. We played a tough schedule. We've grinded it out. We got on a six-game losing streak. We stepped up. We competed. This is a young group, and they continue to get better. I went back and watched the tape even when we played Mississippi State the first time to where we are now. We're so much better. We compete. We play hard. Do I think we deserve a chance? Absolutely, we do. But I don't have any friends on the committee. Wish I did. But this team is a no-quit attitude. I thought they did that today. We just had some kids battled. Cheridene Green stepped up, all of them, they battled, played hard. We just couldn't get it done. Q. In that second quarter, was it more Mississippi State stepping up and taking advantage of defensive pressure, or was it your players making uncharacteristic mistakes? HOLLY WARLICK: Combination of both. You can't make a lot of turnovers and mistakes against Mississippi State. Their defense is so solid, you just can't do it. You can't make mistakes. I thought right at the end of the second quarter, we missed a shot. We should have waited, used the clock, taken the last-second shot. We opted for a layup, which, okay, I kind of like that because it's Rennia Davis, went hard to the basket, missed it. They came down, we stayed in the lane, gave up a three. You just can't do that. That's part of youth. You got to understand, get back in matchup. I thought that really hurt us. We went down 11. We could have gone in 9, 8? My math is not real good. That got some of the wind out of our sails. We just can't make mistakes. You're not No. 1 in this league by accident. We just didn't have a lot of wiggle room to make some mistakes. Q. How difficult is it you have to wait a really long time for selection? What is the plan? HOLLY WARLICK: We'll take a couple of days off. Look, it's been a difficult -- when you lose on Sunday, have to wait till Thursday. Yeah, we're going to go about our business. We'll give them a couple days off, practice. All we can do is get ready. That's what we'll do, we'll continue to get ready. We'll practice on Monday and watch the show, so... Q. Defensively you did a pretty good job of draining the shot clock. Mississippi State still found ways to hit tough shots. Was that deflating for your players? HOLLY WARLICK: We did a great job today not letting them get all the way to the basket. But I thought Holmes, she hit some floaters, some jumpers. She was just outstanding. Howard, too. We know what Howard can do. I think Holmes stepped up and did a heck of a job for them. Thought we did a really, really good job against McCowan really throughout the whole game. But we knew what they were going to do. It's a matter of you know what they're going to do, but you got to stop it. For the most part I thought we did. We went to zone a little bit, and it was solid. Then we went to a zone again, they got a wide-open layup. I don't know what happened. Zone is to keep the ball out of the middle, but they went right down the middle. For the most part I thought our defense was good. We fouled too much, put them at the line too much. We needed to get to the line a lot more, too. We didn't have the opportunity to get to the line. Our goal was to get in the paint, so... THE MODERATOR: Thank you. HOLLY WARLICK: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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