Nov. 23, 2008

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Auburn Head Coach Nell Fortner
Opening statement...
"We saw our veterans really do what veterans do and that has been a long time coming for us. These kids have worked hard. DeWanna Bonner and Whitney Bodie have been starters here since they were freshmen. Our veterans stepped up. Alli Smalley played like a veteran today and I think that is why we won the ball game. They played some good basketball down the stretch."

On big lead at halftime...
"Sometimes basketball games work that way. You go on a run and then the other team goes on a run and it gets back to even. At least we had an 11-point lead to be able to withstand their run. They went up eight at one point and I was worried. I thought maybe that it was getting a little too far away, but the biggest thing was that the players never panicked. Our poise was very good today. We got tired, but I believe in our veterans and they deserve to win a ball game like that and they did."

On overtime spark...
"Our conditioning was very good. Sherell Hobbs and Alli Smalley did a great job in those five minutes. We had some great defensive pressures that created some turnovers. Everybody just turned it up a notch. I think that is a credit to our conditioning and the time we have devoted to that in the off season. It paid off today."

On Alli Smalley's big three...
"We had a play for that shot. We just started going over that play again; we have ran it in the past, but she just knocked it down. That was a big time shot. It was just a misdirection play for a three-point shot. You take the ball one way and then you send Alli Smalley opposite the ball, but she's getting screened. So it is against the grain pass. She was open. There was no switching on the screen, so she got a really good look."

Alli Smalley, Guard
On the big three-point shot to tie...
"We had actually worked on it right before the game. So, Sherell Hobbs and Jordan Greenleaf set two really good screens on a girl and I just came off and was open."

Sherell Hobbs, Guard
On the overtime...
"The defensive intensity was great. We ran the floor well. All of those drills we worked on this summer have really paid off."

On Ohio State wearing down...
"Before the overtime, we were just keeping each other up and saying that we are going to win. We went out there and executed well and played hard and just kept running. Overtime was like we started a whole new game, 0-0. Our defense was great. We work on a three minute drill in practice and I think that helped us out. We were getting deflections and steals, which helped us out at the end of the game."

DeWanna Bonner, Guard/Forward
On her inside matchup with Ohio State...
"Their inside players are great. We had to focus in on them; they are the key to their offense. We just worked in practice on keying in on their inside players. It wasn't just me keying in on their players, everybody knew what was going on. We did a great job with that."

Whitney Bodie, Guard
On this big win...
"It is a signature win. It will jump start our season and we want to go undefeated at home. Coach Fortner talked to us about going undefeated at home. We want to beat everyone. Ohio State is ranked ahead of us, so we're just trying to keep moving up in the polls. It is just another step toward our goal."

Ohio state head coach Jim Foster
When you called a timeout five minutes into the second half, was the game going the way you envisioned this team going?...
"We needed some stops. We had some breakdowns defensively. That's an attitude. I thought we had it going offensively, but maybe not to the level defensively that we needed it to. It's about scoring and stopping."

With two teams that run a lot, is it tough for both teams when the game goes into overtime?...
"I don't think that should have any impact what-so-ever. We didn't play with the aggressiveness in the overtime because of youth. They walked out there with four seniors to start the overtime. I think that makes a difference. They have been in the environment before. We have got to learn from it."

Is this in a way a positive thing, that you were able to stop them?...
"Stops are the issue in my mind. We have got to be better defensively and we've got to take it more personally. It just has to matter to us more than it has."

Talk about the difference in Auburn last year and this year in the way they played?...
"Auburn was the same team. They played the same way. We are probably what was the difference. We didn't play up tempo this year. The tempo was controlled better this year at our place based on last year's team. This year we were able to go up and down the floor with them. I think what you saw were two teams that like to go up and down the floor."

Jantel Lavender, Center
You took 27 shots, but you missed more than you normally do, did you rush them a little bit?... "I was rushing. I wasn't taking my time. I could have just taken my time more."

What was it like when Ohio State was down 11 or 12 points and you took the lead?...
"We knew that we had them tired. We were running. Our offense was working for us. I was throwing it. I was taking my time. I think everybody was just finding an open person to make an extra pass."

Star Allen, Forward
What do you think you did well after the time out with 15 minutes left?...
"We had to keep the intensity and keep the defense up."

You had to guard DeWanna Bonner most of the game, what did you do to guard her?...
"She is a lot quicker than me, so I had to body her. When she had the ball, I tried to stay on top of the ball."