Feb. 4, 2010
Vanderbilt 66, Florida 58
February 4, 2010, O’Connell Center
Postgame quotes
Vanderbilt Head Coach Melanie Balcomb
On coming into Gainesville and securing a victory on the road:
“To come away with a win and get such a lead against a good team like Florida – we feel good about this. Florida lost a couple really good players last year in Sha Brooks and Marshae Dotson, and so did we. This has been a really great match-up for us lately, and to play a team that’s a game above us in the conference with no pressure helped. I want to build a little bit of confidence and we wanted to be able to come in and steal a game on the road and that’s what we did.”
On team-high scorer, Jence Rhoads:
“That’s exactly why she’s out there for us. She’s tough, she’s physical and she’s not going to let anyone take the ball away from her.”
Florida Head Coach Amanda Butler
On the game overall:
“From the tip, Vanderbilt set the tone and we adjusted to tone they set. We don’t do well with that. We don’t play our best basketball when we adjust to another team’s tone. We got off to a slow start offensively, we turned the ball over and weren’t aggressive enough. We can’t do that against a good team like Vandy.”
On some possible in-game confusion:
“It’s disappointing that we had some defensive miscues because one of the things we emphasized and spent the most time on in practice was communication about match-ups and guarding. We didn’t do a good job of communicating. In transition, you don’t always get ideal match-ups and you’ve got to be able to communicate down the stretch.”
On the preparation leading up to Vanderbilt:
“We had two intense practices. We had a good idea about how good Vandy was. Those two practices were the two as focused back-to back practices as we’ve had all year. It was baffling to come off to a flat start, but we have to credit Vanderbilt with that because they played great. We didn’t have an effort problem – we never do. Vanderbilt was just a little tougher at times. Not to put it all on one player, but Lonnika (Thompson) knows she didn’t give us her best game. I’ll expect her to have a Champions’ response and have her best game yet on Sunday. She’s a fighter. The one thing I love about Lonnika is I can get after her and challenge her. The overall sharpness was just not there for us tonight.”
On what the difference was:
“We didn’t knock down shots when we were open. Vanderbilt put us in a lot of shot clock situations where we had to force shots instead of choosing them. What was more upsetting was our free throws, which is something we are usually good about. I do think it’s contagious, and it’s also mental. We didn’t all of a sudden become a bad free throw team tonight, it was just a lack of confidence.”
On moving forward:
“We can’t be disappointed in the morning, we’ve got to come in and focus on Mississippi State. They’re going to come to Gainesville with the sole purpose of wanting to beat us on our home court, just like we did to them earlier in the season.”
Florida Player Quotes
Senior Guard Steffi Sorensen
On the physical game:
“I like physical, I like games like that. We didn’t do a good enough job, though. They got a lot of loose balls and that was the difference-maker. The biggest thing is we didn’t hustle to the loose balls. It is what it is. I didn’t hit good shots.”
Sophomore Forward Azania Stewart
On the loss and what threw UF’s game off:
“It’s disappointing. That was a disappointing loss and it’s one we wanted to get. But credit to Vanderbilt, they never stopped playing. Like Steffi, I never stop hustling, I’m an energy player – we feed off energy. I need to establish the low block. We prepared for them and we did drills. You kind of lose Vanderbilt and it’s about talking and communication. It’s helping each other out and we’ve got to do that.”
