The University of Mississippi Athletics
Renee Ladner Postgame Quotes
1/22/2010 | Women's Basketball
Opening comments...
"I thought we came out and did not play as well as we could have in the first half. Our kids decided in the second half that we were better than that, and they took it upon themselves to gather and make plays, play with great hustle and desire, make good shots and pull together to once again finish a game. We've always been a work in progress. It appears that each game, we get a little bit better. This is a typical Mississippi State-Ole Miss slugfest. Tonight, I guess we had the last punch."
On the slow start to the game...
"I warned them in the locker room at halftime that two things people don't handle well are success and failure. When you've had a big night and everybody in the world has told you how great you are and you're not used to being in that position, then you do have a little bit of a letdown. You can let fear creep in, so once again, we challenged them to pull together and they took it upon themselves, with great urging from me, to make plays. We started playing defense. We started rebounding. The difference in the game was the defensive intensity in the second half and rebounding. We were able to control the boards."
On the overall effort...
"That's why we call it a team. We have a lot of weapons on our team and it should be that way every night. Bianca (Thomas) is not going to score 42 points every night. She has everybody's attention and other players are going to have to step up like they did tonight."
On Nikki Byrd...
"It's what we expect her to do. We've seen it, we just don't see it all the time. I believe Nikki understood the importance of the game. Whether she was playing for herself or playing for the team, she is very talented and she has to play with great effort all the time."
