Jan. 26, 2012

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Kentucky Head Coach Matthew Mitchell

Opening Statement…

“We had really fantastic performance by our team tonight.  We are so proud to earn that victory.  I thought Auburn was a team who played extremely hard and tough.  They were very active around the rim and made it hard to score and our team just keep plugging.  We earned a great victory on the road.  I am really, really proud of our defensive effort.  It was outstanding.”

On the 18 point run in the first half…

“I just thought that we really started getting aggressive at our half-court defense and I thought that we substituted Maegan Conwright during the game and she made a huge difference in our defensive energy.  She had probably her best defensive practice yesterday and she carried that over into the game tonight and she made a big, big difference on the defensive end.  I thought it energized our entire team.  I thought Samarie (Walker) sitting next to me did well and had a really great defensive day. We played some tough defense.”

On forcing 30 turnovers…

“It is outstanding to be in the Southeastern Conference and play a good team like Auburn, with good players and well coached. It is just a real testament to how hard our players have worked. I asked and fully gained to really expect to do well tonight because they had put in a lot of hard work on the defensive end, so it was our goal to turn Auburn over and at half-time we had turned them over 16.  We said we would like to get to 30 if we could.  I am really, really proud of that.  That is a significant feat.”

On player rotation in first half run…

“Well I just thought everyone was hustling and we had a very unique group of young women who it does not look to me they are not real concerned on who gets the credit.  They have shared the basketball.  They fight for each other on the defensive end, so that was not surprising.  We have a very good basketball team.”

Kentucky Players

Maegan Conwright, So., G.

On what ’s changed in the past few weeks…
“I’ve worked really hard on defense. I know my role and that’s to play defense, so when I play hard doing that, my offense comes with it. In practice I was gaining confidence and Coach was telling me how I was doing good, and so that carried over into the game to where I was confident on the court and he was confident in me.

On struggles in the beginning of the season…
“It wasn’t really that frustrating, because at the end of the day I just want to win, and if I’m not giving him what he wants, then I shouldn’t play. We were still winning and I want us to reach our goals.”

Samarie Walker, So., F/C.

On her comfort level…
“I’m more comfortable than I was at the beginning of the season. I don’t know if I’ll ever be caught up, because they still have more than half a season over me, but I’m definitely more comfortable than I was in the beginning.”

Auburn Head Coach Nell Fortner

Opening statement…
“The turnovers killed us. Turnovers killed us, and then I think in the second half, the bunnies that we missed. We had to work hard for our baskets to begin with, and then when we get it right under the basket and miss, it’s tough to recover from. Turnovers ultimately are what cost us.”

On the eight minute scoring drought that gave Kentucky the lead in the first half…
“We couldn’t score. Their pressure is intense. They make it very hard for you to score. I thought we missed some opportunities as far as seeing some openings maybe on the block, but that is some intense pressure, and it’s difficult for us.”

On what makes Kentucky’s pressure different from other schools…
“It’s a reckless abandon pressure. You don’t know when a trap’s coming. It’s like a reckless abandon that has purpose. They play it well. They rotate well in it. If they’re trapping you, they can cover things up quick. They’re very quick. That’s the other thing. It’s not like they’re slow. They’re very quick and can recover. It’s unlike anything we’ve ever played against, I know this year. (Kentucky head coach Matthew Mitchell) has taken full advantage of his quickness with his guards.”

On things to improve upon moving into the second half of conference play…
“Taking care of the ball. I think we turn the ball over too much, and not just against Kentucky, but that seems to be something that we have too many turnovers. People offensive rebounding on us. Those are probably the two things that hurt us more than anything.”

Auburn Players

Blanche Alverson, Jr., G/F

On what went wrong in the first half…
“We were just turning the ball over. We weren’t taking care of it on the offensive end. I think most of our turnovers happened in the scoreless stretch we had, which really hurt us in the first half. We could had taken our momentum and gone with it, but we just had too many turnovers.”

On overcoming ball pressure…
“I think it’s getting better. I think we try to play too fast sometimes. Teams try to make us play fast, take a quick shot and take a bad shot. I think we just have to stay poised. We work on that during practice all the time, so now we just have to transfer that over into the game.”

On the turnovers…
“We had 30 turnovers in the game and that’s what Kentucky feeds on. When you are playing a team like Kentucky, you just have to be poised and not turn the ball over.”

On the goals for the rest of the season…
“We need to keep on working and keep on getting better every day at practice and transfer that over to the games. We don’t need to give up, keep working hard, keep our heads up, and keep fighting in every game we play.”