“Proud of our team. We needed a victory today and we needed to earn it and we are just really, really happy to bounce back after a tough loss on Thursday. That is a tough team. They really play hard and I am really happy our team was able to exert enough energy to earn a victory. We are real excited about that.”

“It was a tremendous turning point in the game because we had lost some defensive focus there. You have to be aware of Vanderbilt’s ability to shoot the 3. They’re one of the best, absolute top in the country and it’s a lethal weapon for them. We were not focused there in that stretch and we had to whether that storm and we made it through with some effort plays and some disruptive plays on defense and that’s what the theme of the day was, to really disrupt Vanderbilt. It probably won the game for us being able to be +11 on turnovers and getting them out of rhythm. That was a huge turning point in the game.” 

“Taylor is just doing such a good job in so many areas. That stat line is just filled with effort plays in there. She did a fantastic job communicating today and letting me know what was happening out there so I could try to help them. She was helping her teammates, had some great calls, got us in some great stuff offensively, so her leadership was solid all day today. It was outstanding today. She’s just playing at a real high level and has to be one of the top guards in our league and one of the top guards in the nation. She’s playing really well.”

“Well, South Carolina has got the most imposing front line in our league. The two players for them are just so imposing and a lot of people have a tough time against them in the paint. I thought today that we were able to keep our poise, and even though Vanderbilt was able to disrupt us, we kept our poise enough and were able to get the ball in there to Evelyn (Akhator) and she would score, or our guards would set their feet in the paint and score. Some of that came out of transition from our defense, so it was a combination of things. Evelyn really made some great plays, Alyssa Rice is playing so much better – she’s giving us a real lift with her continued improvement in play – so that one-two punch coupled with us being able to get out in transition because of some of our turnovers today really helped us score in the paint.”

“Where we were at that point in time, we needed something going to the rim and I have a lot of confidence in her ability right now and I thought that that was the play – the right one at the time. I don’t have the stats in front of me, so I may not be aware – but the coaches may be telling me hey, this person is going (to the rim), that person is going (to the rim). But, I think it’s important that when you have a player you have confidence in, that you know what she can do. When I looked at the stat sheet after the game, I was surprised she only had two points, but we needed that bucket. It was maybe one of the three or four biggest buckets of the game. We have a lot of confidence in Maci. She got out of rhythm with the early foul trouble and it’s hard to sit out for 16 minutes in the first half, and I pulled her out one time to try and figure out what they were doing in transition. She’s kind of our quarterback on defense in transition defense and so she played hard today. She contributed to the victory and that bucket came at a really big time for us. We needed that.”

“It makes a big difference. You don’t try and give one player too much credit, but the way I look at it – all of us are so important and every play is so important – but her eight points is the difference in the ball game. We won by eight points, so it’s critical that she’s able to perform at that level. She’s a very smart defender and has contributed all year long defensively, but we need her to do what she did today. She really did a nice job today and it is a product of her persevering through workout after workout after workout and keeping a strong belief that she could be a good player. That’s the great thing about basketball – if you can play well enough to get in, it matters how you’re playing at the end. That’s what we’ve been trying to do all season – we’ve been trying to build our team to play its best basketball at the end, and she’s a piece of that and she’s starting to come on. Winning this game today 2-of-14 from the 3-point line just gives you some view of what we can become if it ever gets to firing on all cylinders and I really think we can be a potent team – we just need everyone to do their job and to contribute. To see her contribute improved play offensively, it’s very big for us.” 

“Oh yeah, coach got mad at us at the first media in the first quarter because he felt like our energy was not there and he subbed me and Evelyn out because we weren’t playing hard and not hustling. Then he told us this game is all about disruption and Vandy is a very set-oriented team. They run their sets almost perfectly. They are very good at executing and coming into this game, we had to disrupt. That first five minutes of the game we were not disrupting and getting any deflections or steals. Coach was upset with us because that was part of our game plan, so it seemed like we were unfocused. So after that, he was really proud of how we flipped that and came into the half time with the lead and got some steals and got some deflections and heated them up and caused them to turn over and that led throughout the game with 21 turnovers.”

“I wasn’t surprised in myself. I knew he was going to get me. I knew I wasn’t playing the way I needed to be playing at the start of the game.”

“He didn’t really say nothing today. It’s just I’ve been around here for four years, so I know. He subbed me out real early and I was like, yeah. I just walked past him like, yeah, I got you.”

“I don’t believe there is such a thing as hitting a wall. We are kids, just 19-, 20-, 21-year-old female athletes, and it is hard. It is very tiring. In the flow of the game, I personally get winded, so I ask for breaks and gather myself at media timeouts. But to play 35-plus minutes, my body is natural to it. During the game it doesn’t hit you as hard with the adrenaline.”

“Even though we lost to two very good teams in our conference, I think we are still up there at the top. I try to encourage the team and remind them that we want that top-four seed so we can get the double bye come the first week of March. It is very important and we are still right there in the race. We just have a couple games. We have to start stealing some on the road. Each SEC game is like gold to us and we just need to see how we can play out the month of February leading into March.”

“I do. My goal is to just get the next play or get an extra play if the first possession that we have wasn’t good. I just keep attacking, and if they box me out then I’m just going to keep on going.”

“Most guards don’t rebound the ball like I can. My goal is to just push it and if my teammates are running with me, I can find a shooter like Maci (Morris). Or if Makayla is running with me, I can shoot it down to her. So I prefer rebounding.”

“One of the points of emphasis for our team was rebounding the basketball. I thought our attention to detail on rebounding the ball was very good. We shared the ball offensively, but you can’t come into an environment like this and play a team like Kentucky and have 21 turnovers and give them opportunities at the foul line that you’re not recouping. So credit Kentucky’s defense with disrupting us and forcing us into those turnovers. We have to grow from this because turnovers have been an Achilles heel for us. We’ve grown a lot on the defensive end of the floor and I think that we showed some of that today and I’m proud of our team for that, but we have to put both ends together.”

“I think it was a little of both. They trap you in the wing and they come at you. They fly all around and they’re pretty athletic, so it think what that did was force us to rush a little bit and get in a hurry to get rid of it. I think some of them were us just not valuing the basketball, trying to make soft passes or long passes and you can’t do that against an athletic team. I also thought there was a lot of uncertainty when they came at us.  Sometimes you could see it in our little faces that we were a little unsure. We talk to our team all the time about taking a five-second call. I’d rather have a dead ball turnover than a live ball turnover. So, I think it was a little mix of both.”

“She’s special. I think her ability to play at all three levels – shoot the three, get to the paint and play in the mid-range – she’s one of the great finishers with contact. She reminds Coach Dunn and I of Katie Smith in how she could always finish really well with contact. She has great body control and she plays with emotion, and I love that! She’s got an edge about her. She’s got an edge that you need to be successful and I love that about her. She’s special and she kicked our rear ends.” 

“We fouled, there’s no question we fouled sometimes. We’re a team that’s transitioning from playing mostly zone – returners and even our freshmen – and we want to play a lot of man, so that’s a growth process for us. But yes, I’d like to get to the foul line some too.”

“It speaks positively to us. We can score, we can shoot, but we have to give ourselves opportunities to shoot. We have a very small margin for error. In this conference, teams take advantage of you and when you’re giving a team 21 extra possessions, you’re not giving yourself an opportunity for success. We shot the ball 43 percent for the game, 53 percent in the fourth quarter. We need those possessions and we need to value those possessions.”

“I think her body type is built for it. I think a lot of times it’s mental too and it’s preparation. She’s so much better now than when she was younger at taking care of her body and understanding what it takes to be able to sustain, not only in a game but the season. She’s strong as an ox and she doesn’t put herself at risk for injury because she always has great body control. A lot of times you’ll see people who set themselves up for injury because they’re kind of all over the place and they don’t have really good body control. She’s always got control. I think she’s going to make a great pro. She’s got the skillset, the mentality. Now all she has to do is continue to focus on all the little things and I think she could have a long career.”