In Tennessee's win over Georgia, Lady Vols center Tamari Key logged her first start of the season.
She previously came off the bench while working her way back from blood clots found in her lungs at the beginning of the 2022-23 campaign.
In the victory, she posted 10 points on 5-for-8 shooting to go along with eight rebounds, a block and a +/- of +22 in 26 minutes of action.
Following the game, Key, Tennessee head coach Kellie Harper and Bulldogs head coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson spoke on the performance.
TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM
Kellie Harper
On the decision to start Key:
"I thought she played really well to start there. I thought she gave us some good looks in the paint offensively and obviously defensively she's able to be that presence that we need. It was just something we felt like we wanted to do. Wanted to shake it up a little bit, felt like it was what the team needed right now. You know everybody on this team has been really receptive on when we're making adjustments and changes like that."
Tamari Key
On starting again:
"I was excited, but honestly, I just am willing to do whatever the team needs me to do for us to pull out wins. Honestly, that's the ultimate goal. We had 24 assists today, so I feel like we were all looking for each other offensively and defensively. Our guards were pressuring and I had their help in the paint and could kind of float around a little bit with this team."
On Jasmine Powell helping as point guard:
"Oh yeah, for sure. We like to play inside-out and when our guards are hitting on the outside, it opens stuff up on the inside. So, we kind of just bounce off of each other and we made a lot of great reads today and they hit a lot of big shots today especially after the third quarter just to kind of get us back pulling away and in that fourth. So, I was super proud of our guards today."
On adjusting to the starting lineup:
"No, I was ready. Honestly, just have to be ready whenever your name is called and they played in a three-two (zone). I think that physicality of their zone defense was probably an adjustment, even though I think we had a really good couple practices before we came in that prepared us for the physicality of their three-two. But other than that, no."
On improving on offense:
"Just looking for the ball. Just building, continuing to build my confidence up. Obviously, we put in a lot of work, you know, outside of practice. Like Jewel (Spear) said, film sessions, a lot of technical little things like positioning on rebounding. So, I know me and Joy (McCorvey) watched film yesterday and you know, we're wanting to tweak some things about my rebounding positions to try to get more boards and I was really focused on that today. So yeah, just small, like little tweaks that can make a big difference in games."
Georgia HC Katie Abrahamson-Henderson
On how Key changes the game:
"For us in our matchups, she doesn't really. The only way she does is we get slammed and we can't get out to the corners. That's because she's so big and she's doing a really good job of being a big post presence in there. I don't even know how many points she had. How many points did she have? She only had 10 points. So, it's more her occupying space and it's like her setting a bunch of on-ball screens and we can't get through them because of her size. I'm glad she's back. She's been out for a while and her injury last year was pretty scary. What happened to her was pretty scary. It's nice to see her back. Hopefully, she'll get a shot at the next level."
–––––
– TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM.
– ENJOY VOLREPORT WITH A PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION.
– SUBSCRIBE TO THE VOLREPORT YOUTUBE CHANNEL.
– FOLLOW VOLREPORT ON TWITTER: @TennesseeRivals, @TMansfieldMedia, @ByNoahTaylor, @RealTBannerman, @RyanTSylvia, @Dale_Dowden, @ShayneP_Media, @TylerIvens.
–––––
