Post Game Quotes: Southern
11/15/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Head coach Suzy Merchant
On the game being harder than it had to be…
That's exactly what it was. I always say that about layups and free throws; it becomes everybody's disease once we miss. I mean, it really started with (Victoria) Gaines when she had those two wide open layups, there was no one even around her and she missed them both. We just missed too many layups. We got to the free throw line which was good, obviously we want to have opportunities there, but we didn't make those either, so it's kind of difficult. Those are the type of shots that we always want. This is our third game since Friday. Three games in five days is a lot. We're about to play our fourth in seven days on Friday. So, the next one is on the road. It's a lot.
We have a lot of freshmen. We have a lot of new kids. Gaines is new, Taya (Reimer) is new, Taryn (McCutcheon) is new. Those are three kids in the starting lineup. Mardrekia (Cook) and Nia (Hollie) and Hana (Vesela), those are all new kids. I think they're kind of nervous out there a little bit, trying to find their place. They just need to do a better job of staying together, and finish layups.
On making sure that Tori gets her shots…
No question, she's someone that we have to play through. Last year, it was Aerial (Powers), but this year she's going to get more opportunities for them, and when she scores the ball we're usually in pretty good shape.
On what their defense was doing to stop MSU…
Most of it was that we were just making silly decisions, you know. We had that long stretch, I mean Tori had that one where you're supposed to run a play and she decided to post up and make a cross court pass for a turnover. We just fumbled and fumbled the ball, missed a lot of simple catches in there, Brandi threw it away. It just was a little difficult to watch at times.
On the positives…
I think this team is doing some good things and we're hoping that some people can step up. We've done a good job of being in our gaps and I do think we'll get there on offense. Usually your offense is behind your defense and you spend a lot more time offensively because we're so new. I think we'll get there, it'll just take some time before we know for sure. I like that we're getting to the free throw line, that's positive. Tonight, we rebounded. Those were the two things that I really liked about tonight.
On Taryn McCutcheon's play…
She needs to want to score the ball more. We kept telling her to want to play downhill, north and south, go right in there like Tori. She would go in there and try and pass and turn it over or she'd go in there and wouldn't shoot at all. Down the stretch she finally went north and south and scored two buckets and got herself to the free throw line. She's got to get a little more aggressive on the offensive side for sure, but it was good to see her get in there late in the game. We just need to get more consistency from her on the offensive side.
