Lady Mocs Basketball Postgame Quotes vs. Samford
3/6/2011 5:35:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Lady Mocs Basketball Postgame Quotes
Samford vs. Chattanooga
Southern Conferene Semifinals
Chattanooga, Tenn. - McKenzie Arena
March 6, 2011
Chattanooga Head Coach Wes Moore
Opening Statement:
"I think the biggest story is the seniors of Samford. You knew Emily London and Savannah Hill were the two you had to try and slow down. Even though, we did a pretty good on London most of the game. She hit some big shots down the stretch. Savannah was a presence the entire game. You have to give it to them. They are well coached and work hard and hit big shots. We had a seven point led with three minutes left. They hit shots while we didn't. I am proud of my kids. There was a point during the season I didn't think we would make it over .500. Just like today, there was a point where we were down seven and you think it is over. The kids battled back and had a chance there at the end. Thought we had a chance to shoot free throws, but I guess that late in the game we aren't going to get the call. Samford deserves it. They have been close every year and deserve this opportunity.
On play at the end of regulation:
"Got the ball in Kayla Christopher's hands. We knew they would probably chase her. So we had it set up for her to get a curl around and try to get a jumper in the lane. Then again, I thought there was a whole lot of contact on the shot. I guess no one wants to make that kind of call late in the game. She did a great job of getting the ball up there and giving us a chance."
On play at the end of overtime:
"I thought the same thing happened in overtime. Bailey (Dewart) attacked the bucket and did what she needed to do. Unfortunately, it didn't go the right way."
On defensive breakdowns:
"I am a little disappointed we had some defensive breakdowns late in the game. Especially when we were trying to trap and pick on the ball. We didn't get that done a couple of times. So that haunted us."
"This team I am proud of. We were struggling. Right before Christmas, we lost a couple of games in overtime and first two games in the conference. The ship was taking on a lot of water. These kids hung in there and fought through it. Our defense got a whole lot better. At one point, we were playing defense on an island. If one person got beat it was a layup. Now we are playing team defense and helping each other. They came to practice ready to work. We had some hurdles to clear. Our entire bench was freshman."
Junior Forward Whitney Hood
On the game:
"It hurts to lose the lead. I am proud of the team for fighting."
Sophomore Guard Kylie Lambert
On the game:
"It is really tough to swallow. We can use this for next season to work on and get better off of it.
On this year compared to last year:
"We had an older team last year. We are a lot younger this year. It did come easier last year. I definitely wanted it just as much this year as I did last year."
Samford Head Coach Mike Morris
Opening Statement:
"Wow, this was a great women's basketball game and it made it even more special because it was tournament time. I cannot give our ladies enough credit to them for coming back from a seven point deficit. We started overtime the right way going up 66-59 too. This was a very good Chattanooga team and really we played a road game in a sense at their place in this tournament. Our goal was to win the Southern Conference and we came up a little short, but our second goal was to win the conference tournament and get a bid to the NCAA Tournament so that is still alive. This was as good as a game that I have been associated with. Playing Chattanooga was a big challenge for us because they had won six out of eight, and played Appalachian State to the wire only losing by one point. They probably played them the best out of anyone all year. We swept them in the regular season, but this was a much bigger stage today to beat them here in Chattanooga. I knew we had to play better today than we did versus Western Carolina and we did. Now we play App State which is for all the marbles."
Talk about Emily London hitting the three to cut the deficit 59-55:
"Emily said I need a ball screen on the wing during a time-out and so we drew it up and she hit the three. That is all I did. Emily did the rest. It stopped the momentum as they cut it to four. We had not gotten to many ball screens in the game so it was a good call.
Talk about the effort of this team:
"This team has always given effort which has gotten us to this setting. You have to do something special to get to this point and that starts with 13 special players on this team. Emily London and Savannah Hill are our seniors and they are quite special seniors at that."
