Nov. 18, 2010
Head Coach Melanie Balcomb
On Stephanie Holzer’s performance:
“I wish she would have played more in the first half, but you can see why I saved her, right? Because I knew we were going to need her. With our guards injured people had to step up and Steph did an unbelievable job: confidence level, she hit great shots, she wanted the ball, and she not only wanted the ball but she converted on it and made three-point plays.”
On Holzer’s status as a starter:
“I don’t know. You’ve got to keep producing. It’s what have you done for me lately? You never know what’s going to happen. She had a double-double the game before and she had been building up to this. I didn’t want to start her early because she wasn’t practicing long enough and I didn’t know how many minutes she could play.”
On the game:
“They did a really great job, I can’t give them enough credit. They’re extremely well coached and they pressured us. They play more of a sagging man and that’s what we had worked against and they came out and pressured our ball handler, they deflected a lot of our passes into the post and I think they caught us off guard.”
Stephanie Holzer
On her confidence as a freshman:
“One thing that me and coach always talk about is knowing how to play like a sophomore and not a freshman. I think I get my confidence from my teammates though, just having them trust me and believe in me I feel more confident.”
Jasmine Lister
On losing the 13-point lead in the first half:
“We kept giving the team second chances. We were boxing out and then we would kind of rest after they’d shoot the ball and that kind of let them get back in the game.”
Samford Head Coach Mike Morris
On his thoughts on the game:
“I thought it was two teams that played extremely hard. I was definitely pleased with our effort. I think it was a physical game which is one of their strengths. I was pleased with our team in terms of our effort. I thought, in terms of our team, turnovers were a big key. We cannot execute well enough if we have too many turnovers. The defense had a lot to do with it. They’re as well-coached team that we’re ever going to face on the offensive end and the defensive end. They make you work for everything. Their size and strength, that came into play. They’ve got a nice team.”
On Stephanie Holzer:
“Obviously the big girl for them, Holzer, with 26 points, we didn’t really have an answer. We couldn’t grow at halftime. We were kind of limited in what we could do. We tried to front her, and play behind and double her. That’s the sign of a good team. When we did stuff to try and keep her from scoring. They took advantage of it and took the plays in the right spot.
“She’s a post player that has skill in all of her size. She seems a little awkward but she never really walks, she never really turned it over. She’s got a great shot, tremendous shot fake as well. When you have a player like that with other players around them in a scheme, that’s going to be tough.”
On what his team did in the first half to cause problems for Vanderbilt:
“I thought we defended pretty well and forced them to make some threes over the top and provided a lot of help. I thought that was key. I thought the second half we got a few layups and that opened up some opportunities to shoot threes and drive it. Both teams shot the ball better the second half.”
