Murray State University Athletics
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Felton addresses media conference about UT Martin, upcoming games
1/23/2006 6:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
ON THE WIN AT TENNESSEE-MARTIN: We're really happy with the outcome. It's always good to win on the road, especially at Martin; we've had some tough games there over the last couple of years. Our kids really worked hard last week in practice, and the nine days off really benefitted us. It helped a couple of people get healthy and work on some things we needed desperately to work on.
They came out and played with a lot of confidence, they played aggressive from the start, and that was good to see. We had kind of a lilttle let-up in the second half where we played tentatively on offensive and allowed Martin to come back to within 12 points.
I'm real proud of how our team finished up and as much poise as they played with. Amber Guffey, at the point position, shot the ball real well, and that's something we've been asking her to do all year, and she finally took shots when she was open. We had a great contribution from our bench. We had 47 bench points, which was huge for us. Hopefully, we can look to take this momentum now into the two tough games we've got coming up this week.
We shot the ball so well (Saturday night). We've got some shooters who have not been shooting the ball like we're capable, and we told them that Martin -- with their defense -- they give up some open shots, and when we're open, we've got to take those shots. Also, knowing we're not going to win the game on jumpshots. We're fortunate enough to hit some shots, and we had some production inside, and that was key for us. Erica Gordian got aggressive and hit a couple of shots, and Joi Scott came in and did some good things.
We were real pleased. I was also a little nervous because you always get afraid of a little letdown, but they didn't let down; they came back and fought. It was a real good win for us.
ON THE LADY RACERS' DEFENSE: We started the game aggressively. That's something we haven't done all year; we've started kind of tentative and passive and let the offense dictate, and we want to change that. We got some steals out of it -- we got 13 steals -- and were able to score on a lot of those: Gerraca (Matthews) and Joi getting out in the passing lanes. That's what we need to do to generate some offense, through our defense. That was a real plus for us.
ON JOI SCOTT'S HEALTH: She couldn't practice until Friday because she had been sick all week with a bad ear infection. We didn't know how she would be, so we brought her off the bench on Saturday and look for her to come back in a starting role this week. She's doing a lot better.
ON THE UPCOMING GAMES: It's a huge week. If you look at our past few games, we've won one game, then lost two, or we did win two in a row, and then we lost three in a row. We want to get out of that lull and try to gain some momentum. We're trying to earn respect for this women's program, and what better way than to go out and compete hard with two of the top teams in our league, especially Tennessee Tech. We have great respect for their program and what they've done, but we also not that we're a team that -- if we come out and play -- we can play with anybody. Tech is certainly a good team, but I feel like we're a very good team, also. So, we're going to try to earn some respect this week starting Thursday, and we'll take it from there.
ON TENNESSEE TECH: They have Emily Christian, averaging about 23 points a game right now inside, and she kille us last year inside. We didn't have an answer. This year, we matchup a lot better. Tech is a team that doesn't make very many mistakes. They have some excellent shooters, and they have a great inside presence, a very balanced team. They're not going to push the tempo too high -- if they have an opportunity to run, they will. Defensively, they're one of the top teams in our league as far as scoring defense. They like to keep you in front of them, much like Martin, and make you score over them. We're going to have to hit the open shots, take them when we're open and look to attack them inside, also.
ON SOUTHEAST MISSOURI: They're playing well. They beat Tech at Tech this past Saturday. It was a low score, 53-46. SEMO is very confident at home; they play very well at home. I know that they're going to be ready for us. We've got to go in and play a lot more aggressively from the start. When we played them the first time, we weren't very aggressive until we dug ourselves a deep hole. We're going to look to start the game aggressively this time and see what happens.
