Postgame Quotes

Head Coach Sherri Coale

Opening Comment:
"I am really proud of these two guys sitting on either side of me [Morgan Hook and Joanna McFarland]. I thought they fought like crazy the entire 40 minutes. I though Vanderbilt played really well. They shot the ball extremely well from behind the 3-point line. Some of them were open looks, but some of them were contested. We just had a hard time overcoming that."

On the offense:
"It is just going to take a while to adjust to different roles. Whit's [Whitney Hand] involvement in our offense, she is the guy who is always making the first cut that starts everything in motion. Now everyone is looking around to see who is going to make that cut and make that move. I felt like everyone was tentative. Nicole Griffin was tentative on the inside and Sharane [Campbell] was tentative. Vegas [Aaryn Ellenberg] was trying to do too much and that resulted in five crazy turnovers in the first half. That was the deal. We had 15 turnovers in the first half and we calmed down after that."

On the defense:
"Our problem in the first half, despite the fact that we turned it over repeatedly, was that we just weren't guarding. We were trying to get back in the zone and just standing there and letting them throw the ball to the wing and their kids shot it. We didn't even attempt to guard them. That is a reflection of just being caught up in the emotion of it all and trying to find your way out of it and find your new role. That will get better, and over the holidays as they have time on the floor together, it will improve dramatically."

On how the team can improve in the adjustment period:
"You just go into the gym every day and try to get better. You pay attention to the things you can control like how hard do you run the cut, how hard did you set this screen, are you running on defensive transition, are you communicating on matchups? There are lots of things that we can control that we did not do very well tonight."

Junior Guard Morgan Hook

Qn the game:
"I just think that some of us went out there and didn't play as hard as we could. That's the number one thing we said --was to go out there and play hard and the game will come to us. I don't think as a team or as a whole we played as hard as we could have."

Senior Forward Joanna McFarland

On her performance:
"I was just trying to play hard for my team. This is my senior year, and I love these girls, and I would do anything for them. Every game, every minute, we have four people who can't play, so every minute that you're on the court, you're representing them. I went through it a little bit last year with my injury, so I know what it's like. And to not play your heart out is disrespectful, and I didn't want to disrespect my team."

On the game inside the paint:
"Without a doubt, it was a battle. They were very physical and we tried to be very physical back. I was just trying to get rebounds and play hard."