SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 5, 2026

Katie Abrahamson-Henderson

Mia Woolfolk

Dani Carnegie

Bon Secours Wellness Arena

Georgia Bulldogs

Postgame Press Conference

Kentucky 76, Georgia 61

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Coach Abe and student-athletes Mia Woolfolk and Dani Carnegie. Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Hard to play a team twice, particularly when you have beat them on their floor. Did you see any real difference in their player other than Strack having a great game?

MIA WOOLFOLK: I mean, like you said, it is always tough playing a team twice, because, I mean, you know each other like the back of your hand. But obviously they added a key piece back. No. 7 wasn't there when we played them the first time.

I mean, it was just a tough game. I feel like both teams played hard, but, I mean, they just came out on top this day.

Q. You're having a great year, and it's not over. That's the good thing. Remarkable progress that you have made playing in the toughest conference in the United States. Of course, I know you look forward to the next game, wherever that's going to be, but congratulations on an awesome year.

MIA WOOLFOLK: Thank you.

Q. Dani, I was wondering, you were teammates with Tonie at Georgia Tech last year. She had I think eight assists today. What makes her a really good guard and sometimes tough to guard?

DANI CARNEGIE: At the end of the day, that's my sister. Yeah, we're close. We made a great bond last year. She's a great point guard. She gets her team involved. She does what she have to do for her team to be successful, and she did a great job today.

Q. Mia, we always hear the SEC as being this big, physical, tough conference, and you guys set a couple of pretty wicked picks right there at the very beginning. Were you trying to make a statement, or is this just the normal way you guys play? Talk about the physicality of the game.

MIA WOOLFOLK: First of all, I was never trying to hurt nobody. I was just setting the screen like I'm taught to do. But the physicality on our team, I feel like we're a very aggressive team. I mean, we do be in foul trouble a lot, so I guess that just attests to our aggressiveness, which we do have to learn, especially going into the tournament. Like, I definitely can't be in foul trouble for my team, so...

THE MODERATOR: Ladies, thank you. We'll take questions for Coach.

Q. Teonni Key did not play in that last game against you. What kind of impact did she make against you all today?

KATIE ABRAHAMSON-HENDERSON: Huge. She was a difference maker. 12 rebounds, 14 points. We did a good job on Tonie in the first half. She had zero assists, and then she kind of started to go to work.

I think Key was huge. Obviously, Clara is a phenomenal player, so...

Q. When a player like Strack is able to hit threes, five of them today, and kind of stretch the floor a little bit, how does that impact sort of the game plan in terms of now you have to guard her out there and inside?

KATIE ABRAHAMSON-HENDERSON: Yeah, well, I mean, we did a great job on Asia. She didn't have any threes. And the game before, Asia and Amelia, they were, like, killing at the 3-point line. So that was our plan not to let them hit threes.

Yeah, I mean, they needed to get -- they are a three-point shooting team, so Clara did a good job of stepping out and kind of picking and popping and getting her shot off.

Q. The defense on both sides was pretty impressive. Can you talk about how your team has improved over the course of the year on that end of the court? And Coach Brooks always says that Kentucky probably is underrated in terms of how good they are defensively. Could you just address that?

KATIE ABRAHAMSON-HENDERSON: I think if you are playing at this level, everybody has to play defense. You have to play defense. I mean, obviously in the next tournament you have to play defense. Defense is going to win you championships, but they're different.

I mean, we're on the ball, really aggressive, really quick, really, you know, aggressive on the ball, and they're so long, they just kind of back off, and they use their length a little bit more.

I think he's talking about their rebounding. I mean, they are really good at rebounding, and we're just faster, more athletic. We could really push in transition. They did a good job of getting back in transition, because we didn't get a lot of transition breaks tonight offensively for us. They did a good job of getting back in transition, for sure.

Q. Coach, they switched to a two-three zone about three minutes left in the third quarter. Didn't seem to get quite as many open looks. Wasn't a lack of effort, but did you see that they were really doing anything other than the point that you made, they're so long and so big?

KATIE ABRAHAMSON-HENDERSON: No, Savannah wasn't in the game. She was in foul trouble, and we got to have somebody else that can hit some shots from the outside and spread them out a little bit.

The second thing I didn't think we did a good job of was getting the ball into Mia. She was open a lot. Savannah is probably the best passer to Mia, always gets her the ball. So those are the two things. To be able to space them out with Dani and Trinity and Rylie and Savannah and Mia in there, I mean, we got in foul trouble again. Vera was in foul trouble. Savannah was in foul trouble. M.V. was in foul trouble. We were in foul trouble.

The last time we played them Savannah was able to be in the game, and Mia was just going to work on the low block in their zone, because they just really spread it out, so I think that definitely hurt us.

But I don't know what questions you're going to ask about Georgia, because that's all I care about, but I'm very proud of this team. They're sophomores and freshmen, and we have one senior. A lot of them haven't even played in this tournament before. They actually are a little nervous going into the game, so I really just tried to loosen them up and get them ready to go and see that we can play with anybody.

Because we're so young, it's really exciting for the future of Georgia basketball, but even going into the NCAA Tournament, there's only been three -- there's only three people on my team that have ever been to the NCAA Tournament.

So there's a lot of first-time, first-step things we're doing at Georgia with the culture now that's in with our team and the players. You know, they really defeated. I told them keep your heads up. You guys are doing a great job. You got a bye in the SEC tournament. That's your body of work.

We got to remember what our body of work is. The SEC tournament is just one or two games or three games, and somebody is going to lose. Everybody is going to lose eventually, even in the NCAA Tournament, even in the WNIT tournament. You're going to lose eventually.

We're still alive. We still have another opportunity. I'm just very proud of them. I mean, we only had four returning players, and added eight new players. They're great. They got great character. They're great kids. They really like each other. They really like playing together. They're really fun to coach. They're fun to see every day. They're just going to continue to get better.

They have some really big opportunities, and they're doing things that they've never done before. So moving forward, if we're able to keep them, moving forward if we can keep the majority of them, they're going to have so much experience, so much experience.

I just want to say something about Dani. Dani last year wasn't a go-to player at Georgia Tech, and so to her being a go-to player this year for us, that took some time for her. That was, like, a lot, right?

She had a lot on her plate, and she felt really responsible in a lot of our losses that she didn't step up for her team. That's very admirable for her. She's done a lot of great things for us this year. To come from the ACC and then be First-Team All-Conference SEC, that's crazy. I mean, that doesn't happen.

It just shows how much our team -- she knows our team really helped her out, but she's a great player for us. And more importantly, she's a great kid, comes from a great family. They all are, to be honest.

Just proud of this team that are very young, and the future is very bright, and we're going to go to the next tournament we play in, and we're just going to be hungry and humble and ready to go.

Q. You talked about getting your players to buy into your culture and how much it's helped you this season. What is that culture for your team?

KATIE ABRAHAMSON-HENDERSON: Well, it's "team first and me second," for sure. I mean, it just starts with -- if somebody like Dani -- if your best player -- and she doesn't consider herself the best player, but if your best player is one of your most unselfish human beings you have on your team, wow, you are really, really lucky. You are really blessed, really lucky. She's one of them.

Trinity is very unselfish. Mia is super unselfish. You can tell by the way she comments up here. You know, they just want to do good.

Remember, this is the first year of winning for them, for some of them. Mia and Trinity didn't win last year, and now it's their first year of winning.

You know, the culture is family first, academics second, basketball third, and just loving playing for our coaches and playing at the University of Georgia. Dani came to Georgia because she wanted to be a difference-maker, and she really is. She's made a huge difference and a huge impact for us.