The Lady Vols defeated Florida, 79-65, Sunday at Thompson-Boling Arena.
Tamari Key recorded a triple-double in Tennessee’s victory. Key scored 23 points, blocked 10 shots and totaled 10 rebounds.
Following Tennessee’s win, Lady Vols’ head coach Kellie Harper met with media and discussed her team’s performance.
Below is a transcript provided by the University of Tennessee.
Opening Statement:
“I’m excited that we are finishing this home stretch with a win. Obviously, this Florida team has a couple of dynamic players. You could see that throughout the game. I’m really proud of our team’s fourth-quarter defense. I thought we really gritted our teeth and got stops down the stretch. We showed a lot of toughness. Offensively, I felt like we executed pretty well. The third quarter, I felt like we quick-shot the ball a little bit and didn’t get the post touches that we should have gotten, but we were able to come back to that in the fourth quarter. There’s a lot of things to be proud of, and obviously, some big individual numbers with Tamari’s (Key) numbers and our overall rebounding numbers. We gave up too many offensive boards to Florida. They just really worked hard. They hustled to get those. Hopefully, our players will feel good about it and get rested up for a little road stretch here.”
On Tamari Key’s triple-double, which was the fourth in Lady Vol history:
“She played terrifically, and I wish we had gotten her the ball more. I thought we went away from it a little bit in the third quarter. Her teammates are looking for her. She’s getting on the offensive boards and her put-backs are pretty quick. She’s done a much better job of that recently. She wants the basketball. She’s looking for the ball on the block. Defensively, I thought she did a really good job of finding ways to help her teammates out. I don’t know what the numbers were, but I felt like she really executed that in the second half, especially in the fourth quarter. She came over and provided a lot of help. A lot of people just aren’t going to get shots off on her when she’s helping around the paint. I’m really proud of her.”
On starting Kasiyahna Kushkituah:
“Kasi has played well. I think she’s been solid. Her defense has been really strong, as well as her putting up good numbers on the offensive end. I feel very confident having her out there to start the game. Obviously, not having Marta (Suárez) out there changed our lineup. When we knew Marta was not going to play, we had no worries about putting Kasi in the lineup.”
On the team’s book club:
“We’ve been doing this since the spring. We’ve been really working on our personal development and team development off the court since the spring. We have a book club going right now. On Friday, we started with book club. We had built in a little time for that and then we were going to follow it with a film session before going out to the court. Book club went so well. It went long, but it was going so well, and we didn’t want to cut that short. I was so pleased with where they were mentally, that it was one of those things where I said, ‘Let’s just go to the court.’ We can make the film session up later. I think those types of things are really important for this team and our growth. I think the success that we have had is largely in part to what we’ve done off the court.”
On how crucial she thinks Tamari Key’s defense is for this team, especially after having 10 blocks tonight:
“She is much improved offensively and defensively. She’s a presence defensively, and sometimes it’s not blocking shots, but it’s her being in the right spots. And tonight, it was blocking shots. She did a great job on the boards, and did a great job being where she needed to be. It was really making things difficult for Florida when they got in the paint.”
On how important it was to close out this four-game home stretch with a win as they head into some tough road games:
“We’re on a three-game road swing now, and absolutely, I thought this was a big game for us to get in the win column. We can take a breath now and get fired up again to take on these road games. It’s not easy, but we don’t talk a lot about defending our home court. And we don’t talk about that, because we should win road games. So, I think our team has traveled well this year. We’ve done a good job when we’ve been on the road, and I’ll expect no different this upcoming week.”
On how difficult it is for a team when a head coach is unable to travel due to COVID:
“There are some great assistant coaches in the SEC, and I think probably every team in the league could have someone step up and take over. I think he’s (Cam Newbauer) been involved with them as much as he could, through Zoom, phone calls, and what not. I hate that he’s not there, because I can’t imagine how he feels. That’d be such a gut punch, and it could happen to any of us. The players are resilient. You’re going to get them a game plan, and it’s not going to change how they play. It’s still going to be the same thing you’ve been doing. So, they’re resilient, but it’s probably harder on the coaches than it is on the players.”
On if she thinks the team plays better when Tamari Key and Kasiyahna Kushkituah are both out there:
“Well, I like playing Kasi at the five, and I also like playing Tamari at the five. So, when you play them together, you take something away from one of them a little bit. We really tried to look and see how we could play them together and what advantages we would have. Some of our plays work well when they’re together, and some don’t, so we just have to be a little bit more specific about what we are going to look for offensively when we’ve got those two in there together. We’re going to look into some other options as well obviously, as Emily Saunders can come in and play some five. We can go small and play a four-guard lineup. It changes game to game based on personnel of the opponent. If you have foul trouble, it changes. So, we’re trying to be as flexible as we can be, and just know what we’re going to call, what we’re going to look to do, is putting our team in the best position to be successful with whatever lineup we have on the court.”
[vertical-gallery id=35402]