Dec. 21, 2008
Vanderbilt 86 – Tennessee-Martin 29
December 21, 2008 – Memorial Gym
Attendance: 4,221
Melanie Balcomb, Vanderbilt Head Coach
On Vanderbilt’s Focus in the Second Half:
In our last game, we didn’t play very well the second half and the game ended poorly. Tonight the girls listened to us (Vanderbilt coaches) and did what we asked them to do. The girls were excited because they knew what to do and they knew what we worked on in practice yesterday was working today. We play so many different kinds of teams, so it’s hard for us to figure out who we are and that’s what we need to focus on.
On Offensive Balance:
We had an absolute balance tonight. The more offensive balance we have, the tougher we can guard with the same balance. And certainly the more balance we have, the more we can get to the basket. Teams know Tina (Wirth) and know her game, so they prepare for her, but everyone played well tonight. And Hannah just played at the next level today. We were unselfish on offense. Instead of rushing just to get a shot off, we were waiting and taking our best shot. Because of our balance today, our shooting percentage and number of assists increased greatly.
On UT-Martin’s game against University of Missouri and how it affected VU’s preparation:
UTM only scored 23 against Missouri, so we knew if we just played our game and worked hard, we could capitalize on that. However, we had 3 starters on the bench with foul trouble, so that was difficult for us at first because we came out of the gate fouling.
Vanderbilt Players
Hannah Tuomi, forward
On Vanderbilt’s Play in the Second Half:
We definitely had to come in and make a statement, especially after how we played in the second half against Tennessee State. We knew we would be good if we could control the tempo, and we did.
On Vanderbilt’s Defensive Start:
Well, it’s like they say, defense wins games. Our work on defense in practice definitely helped us today and improving on defense is a major goal we had in mind today.
On Playing Three Games in Four Days:
Yeah, we were kind of overwhelmed with that idea at first, but we know what we need to do. We have to go into every game the same, regardless of how many games we’ve had before. But we’ll be ready for tomorrow.
On Last Two Losses Coming Before Breaks in Academic Calendar:
Really? I had no idea that was how our losses went (Vanderbilt lost its first game right before Thanksgiving Break and its second game right before Finals Week) .Well we have to make sure we come in and make a statement. We just have to continue to win and keep a momentum going into our games tomorrow and after Christmas.
