NASHVILLE — The Lady Vols went on the road but came up short against Vanderbilt.
Following a game-winning shot with under a second left by Mikayla Blakes, Tennessee lost 71-70 in Nashville.
Here is what Lady Vols head coach Kim Caldwell said after the game.
TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM
Opening statement
“Hats off to Vanderbilt. I think they outplayed us from the very beginning of the game to the very end of the game.”
On what changed in the second quarter
"We just weren't scoring. We weren't taking good shots. I think we were settling for threes and they were doing a phenomenal job of beating us to the 50/50 balls. And when we're not scoring, we don't play very good defense."
On giving up an offensive rebound on the final play of the game
"It's incredibly frustrating. We told them box out, they get one shot, we work on it every day. That's pretty much the only thing we coach is effort and rebounding. And that's pretty much the only thing they're struggling at right now."
On what makes the duo of Mikayla Blakes and Khamil Pierre
"They can score any type of way. We didn't have an answer for them. They're special."
On not forcing as many turnovers
"I think in the second quarter, shots weren't falling so we couldn't get into our press. And I think a lot of the times we didn't have the right people on the ball and so we couldn't enforce our pressure. Just didn't really have the effort. But when we did want to do it, as always, something good usually came from it. They didn't score too much on the back end from it."
On suffering another one-possession loss
"I think they have to make a change. We have to make a change. We can't continue to just do the same thing and have quarters where we don't show up. Get out-rebounded when it matters. Have plays where we take them off, effort plays. We show them every possession that cost us a game. We're either not good enough to fix it or don't think it matters."
On pitching a comeback, what it says about the team
"I would have something good to say about that if it wasn't the third time that this has happened. That's just who we are. We're inconsistent. We take plays off, we only turn it on when we want to. That would be the third game we've put ourselves in a hole and then climbed back and then lost by one possession. So if they could just figure out how to be consistent, we wouldn't keep having this problem. We are resilient, but we do it to ourselves."
On moving away from shooting 3-pointers in the second half
"That's kind of what we're saying about settling for shots. We always want to go for layups on the road and we settled for quick threes, especially transition threes, before we saw anything go in. So just making sure that we are consistent about getting layups first. And then once we see a couple layups go in, we'll usually shoot better from the outside, but we've got to be patient."
On Tennessee fouling
"I think it was huge, especially in the third quarter. I think the majority of their points in the third quarter came from us fouling. So, that's just something we need to continue to work on."
On trying to get her team to play consistent in the SEC
"It's frustrating and I think it starts in practice and I think when we can string consistent practices together then we're going to take a step forward. Until we can do that, we're going to get the same result."
On advice when shots aren't falling
"Same thing. See a shot go in, and it's usually at the rim, hit some layups and then start to go outside."
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