Nov. 20, 2016
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Penn State Women's Basketball
Penn State vs. No. 13 Tennessee
Nov. 20, 2016
Coquese Washington | Penn State Head Coach
Q: Coach can you talk about your defensive play tonight?
A: Well we made the decision that we were going to play primarily zone. Coming into the game, we thought we'd mix it up a little bit, but if the zone was working that we were going to stick with it. We were able to get out on their shooters and not let them get in a rhythm. Mercedes Russell came alive in the second half and they were able to get her some touches but we knew we had to try to take something away. They've been shooting the three-ball very well all season and we just wanted to not let them get going from the 3-point line and try to clog the paint and at least make Mercedes Russell take tough shots, take contested shots. I thought our centers, you know our kids who played in the middle of the zone, Peyton (Whitted), Jaylen (Williams), and Ashanti (Carter), I thought they were pretty big in there.
Q: Coach the other night you were asked `what you would grade your defense' and you said you team would want a do-over, do you think they made up for it tonight with the win?
A: Our defense is coming along, we're coming along. One of the things I thought defensively and in the last game was our energy level on the defensive end it kind of ebbed and flowed throughout that game, so when I gave that grade it was in large part based on that. Tonight I thought our energy on the defensive end stayed high. We didn't get deflated when they went on a run, we didn't get deflated when they were able to get the ball inside to (Mercedes) Russell, and our communication was really high tonight on the defensive end and that makes all the difference in the world.
Q: How would you grade the communication, last time against Akron you said `the communication was lacking with the young players in rotation', how did your young players communicate tonight?
A: Well they weren't out there that much, but they communicated very well on the bench, I would give our communication an A-. In all seriousness, I thought our upperclassmen really came through today and played big. The moment wasn't too big for them. Kaliyah Mitchell gets a double-double, Peyton Whitted comes off the bench and gets eight rebounds, I thought Sierra Moore came in and got some key baskets for us down the stretch so our upperclassmen really stepped up today and held the fort down for us while the young kids could be in this moment and experience what it's like to play big time basketball.
Q: You said that your defense is still coming along , what are some other things that you want to see improve on your defense?
A: Well I think we've got to do a better job of finishing off plays with rebounds. We got out-rebounded tonight by five and true, Tennessee's got a size advantage on us but I think we can do a better job of finishing off plays defensively with rebounds. You know there's just a few minor miscommunications that happen at times that give up open shots or give up transition baskets or things like that and those are the kind of things that I think with more experience and the more they pay we'll figure it out.
Q: Coach the start of the fourth quarter they came back within four and you guys pushed it right back out again, what did you see happening there that allowed you guys to do that?
A: Well I thought we got some stops. I thought Kaliyah Mitchell came down with some big rebounds. We were a little tougher inside in terms of contesting shots, contesting Mercedes' (Russell) shots, but I thought the rebounding during that stretch was big for us. We were able to rebound we were able to get going and Teniya (Page) made some big shots, Sierra Moore made some big shots, Amari Carter made some big shots and that was key I thought for us.
Q: Coach you got to the free throw line only five times through the first three quarters but eight times the last quarter, was that the game plan going into the fourth quarter, be more aggressive and attack the rim?
A: Certainly. We wanted to be more aggressive, they were being very aggressive in the passing lanes so we talked about that there were some driving lanes and we felt like if we had a driving lane attack the basket and get to the free throw line. We've been shooting the free throw pretty well; I think we made most of them down the stretch.
Q: Four of your players were in double digits tonight, do you expect more from the rest of your players. Would you want like five or six more double digit scorers?
A: I'd like 13. We suit up 13, I'd like them all to get double figures and score like 182 points a game, if possible. The more the merrier. The more balanced we are I think the better. The more balanced we are the more dangerous we are as a team. I think that will come, I think a lot of this stuff has to be worked out in game situations where people start to understand on game day where they will be most effective, how they can be most effective and then we get the consistency. If we can do that I think we'll be in good shape.
Q: Coach you had an 18-4 run to end the half, that kind of changes the game a little bit early. What did you see and how were you guys able to make that run?
A: I think the game is a game a runs. They went on a run in the second half and I think we had a 13-point lead and they cut it back down to two. I don't necessarily think we saw anything in particular, but we took advantage of what was there during those times. I think in both of those cases we were able to get to the free throw line or we were able to get out in transition and hit some three's. When we can stretch the defense like that, and that's one thing our guards are pretty good at is stretching a defense, that opens up driving lanes and opens up one-on-one opportunities in the post and it also opens up offensive rebounding opportunities.
Q: Teniya (Page) specifically, she had 29 points and the first six of the fourth to set the tone near the end. What was she able to do?
A: She's just, pretty good. You know she makes shots; she has a lot of freedom. Teniya (Page) has an incredible basketball IQ. She watches a lot of basketball. She analyzes the game. She watches the best players in the NBA, the best players in the WNBA. I have so much trust in her and her decision making out there. There are times when she's doing things and I'm just kind of like `I wonder what Teniya is going to do right here' because she always makes the right decision. So when you have a kid like that who's that intelligent and has that high of a basketball IQ, as a coach you want the ball in her hands you want her making great decisions because she's going to make the right play. I thought she did that in terms of shooting the ball, but then there were times she brought it back out and got us in offense, there were times when she moved it to her teammates, she's just a really bright basketball player and during those stretches of the game she can take over because of her intellect and because of her basketball IQ.
Teniya Page | So. | Guard
Q: Teniya, can you talk about how big this win is for you guys?
A: It is a big win but like we just talked about it is not a win that defines our team. It is not about to be the biggest moment of our season. It is a big win and we are all happy about it. We feel like we executed the game plan and all competed the entire game.
Q: Teniya, you had 29 points what were you able to do specifically to be successful?
A: I just read the defense to see what they were giving me. I was communicating with Amari (Carter) a lot especially being off the ball and another thing I just had to pay attention to how they would guard me and my teammates. A lot of times I had to create off the dribble but also notice that I created enough space to be able to shoot my pull up.
Q: Teniya, you talk about running and seem you have mentioned it twice. Did you guys see something you felt like you could exploit there?
A: I think our biggest thing this year was to be a fast team. The last couple weeks before we even started playing the days before the first game even after the first game was be a fast team and push a ball in every possession. It is something that we have been focusing on, try to speed up the game regardless what it is and I think we just did what we were supposed to do.
Amari Carter | So./Fr. | Guard
Q: You guys had a couple big runs. You started the game off 11-4 and then 18-4 during the half and in the fourth quarter as well. What were you guys able to do to get those runs and how important is it to start fast in a game like this?
A: I think that the biggest thing for us was rebounding and then going into transition and keep running regardless of what happened. So I think the thing that we talked about the most was to rebound the ball and run and transition. That was the key to making the runs.
Q: Amari you seemed to be aggressive from the field all night with shooting seven 3-pointers. What was your mentality going into tonight and also what was it like to hit that 3-pointer to push the lead to 17 late in the game?
A: I was just taking what they gave me. I guess like they said I don't shoot many three's, but they tagged off so I just took it. The big shot to help us push the lead was amazing because it felt like they got deflated at that point. The crowd and the atmosphere really helped us.
Holly Warlick | Tennessee Head Coach
Opening Statement
Hats off to Penn State, they played a great game. They were inspired, they were ready to play us and I think Coquese (Washington) and her staff did a fabulous job. They did whatever they wanted against us and that just doesn't happen. They're well coached and they deserve a lot of credit today.
Q: Holly, they played that zone. You've seen that zone before this year. Was it their size and athleticism that allowed them to be more effective in that?
A: If I watched that game, I would've thought that we haven't seen a zone in five years. You can't take an uninspired basketball team and expect to win. You just can't. We were extremely uninspired, we didn't listen a lot, we had the tendency to do our own thing, and we didn't compete. How do you not compete? You bust your butt every day in practice and you don't compete in the game. That's just difficult for me to understand. So, Jaime Nared and Mercedes (Russell), they got after it. I'm really proud of their effort but when you have a game plan that says don't give them transition points and they get 16, limit their 3-point shots, they get nine. It doesn't take a smart person to figure out that we just didn't want to be up here today. We take more three's than Penn State. There's a problem and that is not our game plan. They did nothing that we weren't prepared for or have seen but they ran it to perfection and we did nothing about it.
Q: Coach on Penn State's side you talked about kind of them running their own offense and what they wanted. Teniya (Page) was kind of the focal point of that and lead the charge. What was she able to do be successful?
A: All she had to do was shot the basketball. We gave her three's, we gave her drives, we gave her anything she wanted to get. We knew she was their best player and she gets 29 points. Good for her, she competed. She did whatever she wanted to do. I'll take full responsibility for this. I guess I didn't have them ready but we'll get them ready. I'm embarrassed of how we played and we'll get it right. But she was outstanding. We keyed on her and she got 29 points. I'd hate to see if we just let her go. She probably would've gotten 40 points. she's tough.
Q: Just to add to that Amari Carter also has three three's for them.
A: She had a great game too. She hit three, she doesn't usually hit 3-pointers. It was a 3-point shooting contest and that was our goal not to give them three's and they went 50 percent. They were inspired, we were not. Those young ladies wanted this game a lot more than we did and the result was they won and they played outstandingly.
Q: Diamond (DeShields) went down early with a leg injury. What's her status and not only that but it seemed like she struggled a little bit after, especially with her jump shot. Do you think that the injury affected her at all?
A: I don't think so. I think she tweaked her ankle a little bit. I'm sure it'll be sore tomorrow. She was able to come back. What did she play, 26 minutes? We would've liked her to play more minutes but she got in foul trouble and she just wasn't on her game and I thought that she had moved past that. She's a great player, a great competitor, but she didn't have it today. When your best player doesn't have it, it's going to be a struggle. Mercedes Russell hung tough and Jamie Nared played forty minutes. I can't say enough about those two. They competed. Diamond has had better days and today wasn't her day.
Q: Also to add to that Alexa (Middleton) only played 14 minutes. Was she injured?
A: Not to my knowledge, she was not injured. She just didn't have a good game. I thought our point guards were average today and again, I'll go back and take that responsibility. I've got to get them a little more prepared, a little bit more vocal and a little bit of more ability to run this basketball team.
Q: Holly, that all said, you got back within four going into the fourth quarter. What did you see as the primary break that allowed them to get away from you again?
A: I think we turned it over and then came down and gave them a three. Three's in the women's game, they break your back. I thought we battled back. On our runs we turned it over at crucial times. In the second quarter I think we had like five trips down the floor and we didn't get a score. Maybe one shot off and the rest we were turning it over. You can't play great defense and get a stop and then go down and turn it over. It knocks the wind out of your sail. I think we played in spurts. We played defense in spurts but we didn't capitalize on it. Points off turnovers, we had seven when we should've had a lot more. We'll go back and learn and we'll get back to practice. Here's the deal, you have control over practice. They have to learn how to play in the game. They have to learn to be prepared and play in the game. Are we a good basketball team? Absolutely; but tonight, we were very average and that had a lot of do with Penn State and what they did to us and that's not competing. Again, hats off to Penn State, they played a great game and I just wish we could've been more competition for them.
Jaime Nared | Jr. | Guard/Forward
Q: Jaime, can you just talk about that first half. You guys dug a pretty good hole there and it didn't look like much was going on with the offense there. What did you see there that got you into that situation?
A: I think that we were really stagnant on offense and it just caused us to not get easy baskets that we normally get. We didn't push and transition in the first half really and we like to get easy baskets off transition. We weren't getting subs on defense so that didn't help either. When we hunker down on defense normally we get easy baskets so we got to do something because that was not good.
Q: Jaime, Diamond (DeShields) had an early injury and Alexa (Middleton) only played 14 minutes and you seemed to take over a little and level out to 18 points. What was your mentality after Diamond's injury?
A: Obviously Diamond (DeShields) is a great scorer and great player for our team so when she goes out we all have to step it up in some aspect. So when we knew she was out with early fouls, we just had to pick it up.
Q: In the first half they were 1-11 in threes. Did you guys maybe take too many threes in that situation because you looked you were able in the second half to break that zone down a little bit when you moved the ball around?
A: In the first half we were moving the ball around in the zone. Nobody was cutting. Nobody was driving. So it kind of caused everyone to play us out and all we were doing was shooting threes. We weren't driving. We had no movement. When you have no movement it is easy to guard in a 2-3 zone and also people were doubling Mercedes (Russell) so it wasn't as ready to get the ball inside so we just have to be more fluent on offense.
Mercedes Russell | R-Jr. | Center
Q: Mercedes, you guys got it back to four with four in the third quarter and then they punched you again in the start of the fourth quarter. What did you see that happened there that allowed them to get ahead of you like that?
A: Well it just started with defensive lapses. We started moving the ball better and started getting better player movement on the offensive end, we were scoring better and just like you said we cut it to four and then boop they came down and hit a three and I think just from there we just kept having defensive lapses from that point on.
Q: Mercedes, you had four in the first half. You seemed to be struggling a little bit, but then you had 15 in the second half. Was the game plan to give you the ball more for you to be the focus on offense?
A: I have to be a presence in the post on the offensive end and the first half I wasn't finishing very well so I knew in the second half I had to come out and finish better.
Q: What did you see from Penn State's zone tonight. Jaime (Nared) said they were doubling on you tonight. Did you see any problems with that? Do you have to pass a little bit more or move around a little bit more?
A: It was nothing that I don't usually see from other teams. I normally get doubled, tripled on a nightly basis so it wasn't nothing new to me, but they were very active and their zone was very good against us.
Q: You mentioned defense elapses. What do you see happening there specifically? It looked like one possession I couldn't tell if you were in the zone or man. Was it even a lineman problem or something?
A: I just think it started with communication. There were several times on the defensive end where we had two people thinking we were on one thing and a couple thinking we were on another page so we just all have to be on the same page and all just know what we are in at the time.
Q: Overall, how disappointing is this because you guys had looked like you got off to a nice start and established some things offensively and such, but then to have a game like this, how tough is this setback for you guys?
A: It definitely hurts but there is nothing that we can do about it now. We just have to bounce back and get ready for our next opponent.