SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 6, 2021

Maya Caldwell

Georgia Bulldogs

Postgame Press Conference

Georgia 74, Texas A&M 68

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Maya Caldwell.

MAYA CALDWELL: How is everybody doing (smiling)?

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions, please.

Q. Can you take me through the second quarter, what happened in order for Texas A&M to get the lead back? What was the halftime message going into the second half?

MAYA CALDWELL: Halftime we talked about just picking up our energy, how to execute on both ends of the floor. We did our scouting on Texas A&M. We know their guard, their plays. We just had to settle in and focus and execute, so...

Q. How does this feel making the championship game, beating Texas A&M as you did? Does Mikayla do what she did against Texas A&M in practice all the time? Do you see her blowing by people for easy layups?

MAYA CALDWELL: I feels great. I feel like anybody who makes it to the SEC Championship can say the same thing. This is a very tough conference. In my opinion, I think it's the best conference out there in terms of women's basketball.

Yeah, Mikayla does that in practice. She's one of the fastest players on our team. It's between her and Chloe. They are extremely quick, extremely hard to guard off the first, second and third step (smiling). She does that. She showed it tonight, for sure.

Q. What were the emotions postgame in the locker room?

MAYA CALDWELL: Everyone is really excited. There wasn't a lot of jumping up and down cheering. Honestly, I went to media out there on the court. If there was, I missed it.

But we know we still have unfinished business. Again, we're soaking up this victory, but we're not done yet. We still have tomorrow.

Q. What happened in that second quarter? Everything kind of fell apart. Can you put your finger on what might have happened?

MAYA CALDWELL: Well, like I say, we weren't executing on both ends of the floor. The energy kind of died down a little bit. They went on a little run. We started to settle.

But we all had the same mindset. We all knew what we he wanted. We all knew what we were here for. We were able to pull it out second half.

Q. Could you have won the game without Mikayla? Did y'all have a moment where you knew in the second half you were going to pull it out?

MAYA CALDWELL: We knew the whole game that we could pull it out. We know exactly what we're capable of.

Did you say something about Mikayla?

Q. Just asking, like, with her coming back from the ankle injury, are you able to win this game out her performance in the second half?

MAYA CALDWELL: Everybody knows we're a deep team. Everybody can play and have their moment any given game. So we needed Mikayla tonight. She put up some points, career high. Very grateful for that. Very proud of her.

If she didn't come back, we have players who can step up.

Q. Kind of a big picture question: The progress Georgia women's basketball has made in the last year, I know you have unfinished business, but just to reflect on where this team is now compared to a year ago, give me the Cliffs Notes version of how and why.

MAYA CALDWELL: We work hard day in and day out, every practice. Get in the gym on our own. The results just show. I mean, that's how.

Why? We play for each other, you know. We know, again, like, what we want. We're all on the same page. As games went on, we figured out exactly what we could do, what we're capable of. So we took that and we ran.

Q. Kind of seems like you found a new gear here in these last three or four games. What would you say that was a result of? Is it just your time? Have you had a different kind of perspective or point of view? What's been driving you?

MAYA CALDWELL: I stopped settling for the three. Coaches kept telling me stop settling for the three. I don't know why it took so long for it to click, but it did.

Then just hard work and prayer, so... Put those two together, you can get something amazing.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you. We appreciate you joining us. We'll see you tomorrow.

MAYA CALDWELL: All right. Thank you.