Nov. 8, 2013
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Howell’s Gallery 
Vanderbilt Head Coach Melanie Balcomb
On the team’s postgame discussion:
We talked about the positives and the negatives. A positive was getting to the free-throw line 35 times compared to their 14 or 15. The other thing that stood out was points off turnovers, 37 points off turnovers. Some things I think we need to really improve on would be turnovers again, we had 19 turnovers, but most of them were in the second half. I think when we took out your two senior guards we started turning the ball over, we started going too fast, and we need to maintain that level when we sub. The other thing is rebounding. We have to check out, we have to know that we are going to rebound whether we’re shooting the ball well or not. We gave up 14 offensive rebounds in that second half and we can’t let that happen against a team that’s obviously smaller than us and less athletic than us. We have to take more pride in our defense and taking care of the basketball.
On Jasmine Jenkins career high in points and increased confidence:
I think she’s taking what they’re giving her. They weren’t guarding her a lot early on in the scrimmage and tonight they started out that way. Instead of her being okay with that she became more aggressive and looked to attack more and take more shots. She proved that she can score, and she can, it’s just building that confidence. She’s always been pass first, score second and I think people saw that on film and that’s the way they played her. Because we have all these other scorers, she took what they gave her and she did a great job.
On Rebekah Dahlman’s 23 points:I was teasing (Rebekah) because I tell everyone what a great defender she is, about her engine and her energy, and I brought her here for her defense, but let’s be real, she scored more points in Minnesota than any girl in their history. She just knows how to score, and she’ll keep scoring if you let her, and they let her keep shooting. She has a lot of confidence on both ends of the floor and it was fun to watch.
On Dahlman’s improved efficiency over the exhibition game:
They played a lot of junk defenses and a lot of zones. We played against a lot of man last game and they were going to mark you up, so she put the ball down on the floor and took 15-17 free throws because they couldn’t guard her off the dribble. Tonight they sat, they knew (Jasmine Lister) and (Christina) Foggie could shoot it so she just took the reigns. Again, she’s just a kid who can flat out score, she’s not a shooter, so she’s going to take what they give her, and she did that tonight.
Jasmine Jenkins
On how career high in scoring came about:
Well, I got to the free-throw line 11 times, so that was half of my points right there. But honestly, I was just trying to be aggressive. Coach always tells me to be effective and be a threat on the court. I have a tendency to shy away from that. I was just trying to get better and prepare myself for the games later in the season when it matters the most.
On gain in confidence this season:
Well unlike Rebekah here, my freshman year was a little rough adjusting. It was really tough coming in as a point guard at Vanderbilt. The offense is really difficult to learn, the defense is really difficult to learn, and I just don’t think I was ready to take on that role quite yet, but now that I have a year under my belt, I feel more confident, I know what’s going on and when it’s supposed to happen.
On being more effective on the boards:
I think it’s a matter of want to. Rebounding isn’t all about skill, necessarily, it’s a matter of wanting to rebound, and I think we have to shift that mindset, because we don’t have Kendall Shaw and Stephanie Holzer, 6’4″ and 6’5″ post players who can grab all those boards. So, we definitely have to be more aggressive and shift our mindset of play when it comes to rebounding.
Rebekah Dahlman
On scoring from the outside tonight:
Honestly, I wasn’t that aggressive to the hoop this time, but I felt really confidentin my threes, and they went down. I give a lot of credit to my teammates, because they gave me some great passes.
On having first official game in the books:
It feels good and I’m just focused on next game.
