Jan. 11, 2015
Recap | Box Score | Rayner’s Photos 
Vanderbilt Head Coach Melanie Balcomb
On changes in the team:
“I think it always starts with attacking and I think I took a really hard look at what I needed to change. I needed to challenge this team and listen to the players. I met with two players and I listened and then I challenged the team yesterday, especially this morning, and during pregame. I needed to tell them the truth and tell them what they need to do for this team. I started to establish roles myself, because they weren’t going to do it themselves. I established more of a rotation and roles, and they had to decide whether to get on board or not. I figured when you’re 0-3 you’re the one who has to change. I’m really proud of how they responded. I told them if you guys want to get mad at me at least you’ll come together. And as a leader I need to do whatever it takes to get this team together. And we weren’t together. They all like each other, but we weren’t playing together as a team. I thought it would happen naturally, so I really took a good hard look at myself first.”
Relying on junior class:
“It was really time to say `you know this is what you need to do for this team.’ Who really knows what they need to do for this team is the juniors. So I had to give the opportunity for the upperclassmen to do it first. They know that they’re being pushed by some very talented players, but talent wasn’t winning and I knew team was going to win. So they had a choice to make and they made a really good choice. They made me look like a really good coach when they all took on their roles. I took them out and said `hey get back to what you’re supposed to do for this team.’ I think they all want to do the right things. I just needed to enforce some things.
On Jasmine Jenkins 10 turnovers:
“I’ll be honest with you. When I looked at that stat I thought someone had put a zero in there when it shouldn’t have been in there. I don’t know where she got 10 turnovers. I need to have her back on this… I thought she played very, very well; very composed, very smart, and stuck to the role and what I asked her to do. So did Paris (Kea). We have two really good point guards. It’s like having two quarterbacks. We have two really good point guards. We’ve played them a lot separate and a lot together and they handled one of the most pressuring and best defenses 94 feet the entire game for 40 minutes. So the stat might say 10, but I don’t have any problem with how Jasmine Jenkins played. I’m really proud of her.”
On Heather Bowe and Morgan Batey’s performances:
“They were warriors. They fought really hard. Heather (Bowe) has always been a fighter. But I think she’s a smarter more consistent fighter as a junior. You saw Morgan Batey get back to her role and fight a little harder than she had been lately. They both saw great results.”
Rebekah Dahlman
On changes made between last game and this game:
“It really started with the coach. I know in shoot around before the game she had a really good talk to us and really opened our eyes and she prepared us for this W tonight.”
On free throw shooting:
“I know for us we are really a 3-point spot team and we only took three three-pointers tonight so we attacked the basket hard and made our free throws. We are 33-for-42, so that’s good. That helped us win the game at the free-throw line tonight.”
On how it feels after the win:
“It feels great. First SEC win for me personally, but this is a team I know and I am glad to be back and this whole team is back in the zone and ready to move on and get better.”
Morgan Batey
On changes made between last game and this game:
“I mean just getting back to the basics to what we are all good at and what we can bring to this team individually really helped this team. We haven’t played together really as a team all season so for us to do that and fight for each other was huge.”
On success at free-throw line:
“I know yesterday after practice before we could leave we had to swish five free throws, not just make them. Individually, I had to make five in a row, (Rebekah) had to make five in row, so forth and so on before we could leave. We’d been struggling a little with our free throws and normally that is the trademark of this team so to get back to that rhythm… Because if we were attacking and we weren’t making our free throws, then it won’t matter so tonight we made them pay for it. So that is huge.”
On the win:
“Anytime we can get going and get a win like this, with an effort like this, you just want to keep that rolling. I know we play on Thursday. It’s not SEC but we want to keep it rolling. I think we have Georgia next Sunday… just pick up where we left off.”
Mississippi State Head Coach Vic Schaefer
Opening Statement:
“Well, certainly disappointed. Give Melanie Balcomb , her staff, and her team credit. They played very well today and a lot of energy on their end today. We got way too many one for four’s, one for five’s, and zero for six’s on our stat line, and they got seven for ten’s, three for four’s, and seven for nine’s. You shoot 62.9 percent… I know they have been struggling shooting the ball, but a lot of their shots were at the rim. I’m just real disappointed in our inability to keep them from not only 12 points in fast break points but 34 points in the paint, and that had nothing to do with their inside game. So, our inability to keep the ball in front of us, and sure we force 24 turnovers; their point guard had ten of them, but the tradeoff is they win by 14. So, I am sure Melanie (Balcomb) will take that every night. I’m just real disappointed. I thought we fought. I am real proud of our kids for the fight that they had today. I don’t think we quit one second, but as I’ve been telling them even in the victories, we’ve got some things that are exposed and we’ve got to fix them. It doesn’t get any easier in this league. Night after night you’re playing some teams that are perennially a top-25 team. This team’s been to 15 straight NCAAs, and I don’t anticipate them not making it 16 this year. They are a well-coached and disciplined team. Again you put a team at the free-throw line 42 times you’re not going to win.”
On his keys to the game coming in:
“Well, I think our depth has been a big key all year long. We’ve wore people down, and obviously we didn’t want them to run their stuff. We really wanted to make them do some things outside of their offense. At times we did that, but there was too much of putting them on the free-throw line. Forty-two times is a lot of free throws, y’all. We haven’t put anybody on the line like that all year long.”
On Coach Balcomb and her team this year:
“Again, I think she (Balcomb) has a really good team this year. I think they are physical, they’re aggressive, and they’re confident. They’ve just been hurt and she hadn’t had them long. I think the longer the season goes the better they’re going to get. Hey, we have all the respect in the world for them. We know exactly what we are going to get when we play Vanderbilt, especially here.”
On the players who impressed him today:
“I think again 21 for them (Heather Bowe) is 7-10 and 25 (Morgan Batey) is 7-9. So, I mean both those kids offensively did a good job. I know she’s probably not fired up about the 10 turnovers, but I thought 15 (Jasmine Jenkins) ran the show well for them. A lot of times she is kind of left out there hung to dry because some of the others aren’t open, but I just think both their kids 25 (Batey) and 21 (Bowe) had big games for them. For us, I thought Breanna Richardson had a double-double, and played her heart out. Played 27 minutes and she just continues to rebound well for us. She had four turnovers, which is about average for her, which she’s got to get that out of her system. My little freshman point guard (Morgan William) didn’t play well today. Again we had some other kids not play well too, and a lot of that has to do with Vanderbilt. You’ve got to give them a lot of credit.”
On first loss of the season:
“You learn from it. I had no delusions of grandeur that we were going to go undefeated this year. It just doesn’t happen in this league. I always have told them, `Hey, if and when the day comes just go out gun’s a blazing,’ and I thought we did go down fighting. I really thought our kids fought. Our problems are that we continue to play undisciplined at times, and not smart. I’ve got a really smart group. I’ve got 14 with a 3.0 or better. You know, it’s basketball and that’s my job. As the head coach I’ve got to wear that. I’ll own it, and I’ll do better coaching and teaching. I thought today we had a lot of those situations where we could have been better. So, we will go back to work, and the key for us now is we don’t want to lose two in a row. We’ve got to come back and fight. I want every player on the team ready to beat LSU. We’ve got to come back and get ready for a team that is playing better. They’ve got one of their top two players back, and so we’ve got to get ready for LSU at home on Thursday night.”