Jan. 19, 2015

Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery

Notre Dame Head Coach Muffet McGraw

Opening statement…
“I’m happy with our team. The difference in the game was rebounding. In the second half we rebounded much better, but in the first half it was really disappointing. They [Tennessee] still had 18 offensive rebounds so I think there is some work we have to do there. I’m happy with our post game. I thought Taya [Reimer] played really well. She showed some toughness coming up with 10 rebounds and Jewell [Loyd] was Jewell, she was phenomenal today. She played extremely well in the first half, had a little bit of an injury there, but came back strong in the second half and I thought the tip gave us great momentum going into the half. That’s a play we really work on frequently.”

On the significance of the win…
“I think it’s a great win for us. We’ve had some good wins already this year with Florida State and at North Carolina. I think we are really starting to gel. We hoped that we would be playing well heading into the conference race and its almost February so maybe we are a little ahead of schedule now but we certainly aren’t going to be pleased or satisfied with that. We really need to compete and get better.”

On the halftime discussion…
“We talked about rebounding a lot and how we were double teaming a lot and giving them some easy shots so we talked about our rotation. We played a little bit of zone in the second half, just here and there. That maybe threw off the rhythm a little bit. We had a few steals and got our transition game going, which I thought was a big key too.”

On preparing for Tennessee’s defense…
“We were trying to work the pick and roll a little more. I think we had some success when we did. We were trying to go high-low when they switched. We did not have as much success with that. We also wanted to give the ball to Jewell [Loyd] and let her go, and we had a lot of success with that.”

Taya Reimer – Sophomore – Forward

On helping the team in a big game…
“I love this team and we all get along so well. I love playing with this team and we all enjoy playing together. It was such a fun game, I think that all of us were really gelling, like coach McGraw said, and I’m having fun out there and playing hard. It was a great victory.”

On how she turns it up in the second half…
“It was really just coach talking about how we needed to rebound and that Tennessee has great size and great experience. We knew that is what we needed to do to get a win.”

Jewell Loyd – Junior – Guard

On having a great game…
“It comes from my teammates, they look for me and they encourage me a lot so I give all the credit to them. Lindsay [Allen] found me a couple times on the backdoor, so did Maddie [Cable]. When you have people encouraging you it makes it a lot easier.”

On the significance of the win…
“A win is a win. I’m not going to go celebrate and go crazy. I’m going to take it like it is and get back to work tomorrow morning.”

On her injury…
“It was a shocker, I’m tough, I’ve played tackle football with the guys, so it was nothing really bad. It was my butt.”

Tennessee Head Coach Holly Warlick

Opening Statement…
“This was a tough game. I thought we fought hard. Notre Dame was outstanding and I think we had opportunities but we just didn’t finish plays. They shot 58% for the game and it’s tough to beat a team when they are getting good looks and finishing. I thought Jewell Loyd was outstanding and one of the best players we’ve played against. I’ve known her for a long time. She’s a great kid and a special young lady so my hat is off to her.”

On the defensive performance…
“I thought we would get good looks and get a stop and then they would get offensive rebounds and a put-back and we talk a lot about us defending but you have to finish it with a block out. I thought we had key stops but couldn’t finish it with a rebound. We also fouled way too much. We talked about it before the game and you cannot put them at the free throw line but that is exactly what we did, they had 27 attempts. That’s not our game and it hurt us.”

On the key difference in the game…
“There was about a three or four minute segment where we had looks and it just didn’t go down. It was three in a row, and they went down and capitalized. Those were key, if they went in it would’ve been different. We missed so many shots around the basket. Those need to be our high percentage shots and we missed a lot of opportunities today. When you don’t make layups and shots around the rim and they go down and score, it gets magnified.”

On the series with Notre Dame…
“I have a lot of respect for Notre Dame and what Muffet (McGraw) has done here. I think it’s a great series for us. It’s competitive and if we are going to play somebody outside of our conference in the middle of the conference season we want it to be somebody that is going to help us get better and I think that Notre Dame exposes some things that we need to get better at like they did tonight. I hope we continue to play them and they are fun games. They are a lot more fun when we win but I think that it is two teams that are solid and competitive and we will take a lot from this game and I’m sure that they will as well.”

Bashaara Graves – Junior – Forward

On her performance…
“I think I came out, tried to rebound the ball, get offensive rebounds, that is kind of my specialty. I just needed to get on the boards and play hard. I knew I could get in the gaps and take them off the dribble. I was definitely aware of that and focused on trying to take advantage of that.”

On what changed in the second half…
“I think we just didn’t defend like we needed to. Jewell had 34 and we didn’t defend her like we needed to. It was just team defense that we didn’t play into.”

On the defensive performance…
“I think we didn’t stick to our game plan. We didn’t have help-side defense, especially in the first half. We picked it up a little bit in the second half but then we had a four minute spurt where it was just horrible so I definitely think our help-side on Jewell wasn’t great and our blocking out wasn’t great either.”

Cierra Burdick – Senior – Forward

On the officiating…
“We know we can’t control the officiating. We just have to come in and focus on playing our game. The refs, I think, are doing a better job to promote movement in the game and more of a flowing style. We just have to adjust and play through and finish through contact. We don’t make excuses. We just have to take responsibility for our own basketball game.

On what to take away from the game…
“We have to go back, look at the film and study what we need to do better. We need to commit to defense and rebounding. That has been our staple since day one. When you are trading baskets, it is hard to win a ballgame. You have to be able to get stops when you need them. That four-minute period where they built that ten-point lead hurt us and we dug ourselves into a hole and were just trying to fight back, but I commend my coaches and teammates. We never let up until the final buzzer and that is a good sign for us.”

Andraya Carter – Sophomore – Guard

On defending Jewell Loyd…
“Jewell is one of the best scorers in the nation so it is definitely tough with a player like that. You just have to try to make it hard on her, get a hand in her face when she is taking a shot. You want to make her be the great player that she is on every position and she did that most possessions of this game.”

On how this impacts the team’s confidence…
“I think we gave great effort. Everything that happened out there is fixable and we will go back, watch film and fix it. The SEC is tough so we can’t have a confidence break. We know the way we can play, and we know what Lady Vol basketball is when we do it right so I think we just have to have confidence in that and get back to doing that.