South Carolina Gamecocks

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South Carolina Head Coach Dawn Staley

On the game in the post tonight...
With what [Appalachian State] was doing in the 1-3-1, I thought if we flooded the baseline with our players that the defender in the back had to make a decision. I thought we had some success with it in the first half and really honed in on it in the second half. I thought Charenee [Stevens] played truly outstanding for us tonight.

On the bench production...
It's been great. When you look at what our bench production was tonight, they had over half of our points. Our bench, as I've said all year long, has a couple that can be starters for us and a couple have started for us. I'm pleased with the way they've been performing night in and night out. We'll get a spark off the bench from somebody - it's been Charenee [Stevens], Ashley [Bruner], and Markeshia [Grant]. We need that kind of production because the starters have played a lot of minutes [throughout the season] and the bench people have fresher legs at this point.

On the layoff between the SEC Tournament and the opening round of the WNIT...
I was worried that we would be rusty just because we've been off two weeks. Our timing was off a little bit. I think it was a game where they jolted us back into game mode.

On the opportunity to play Charlotte at home on Sunday...
It's wonderful any time that you can extend the season, number one for the seniors. This is their last go around, and we want to keep it going as long as possible because they've given four years of their life to this program and to this university. Hopefully their teammates will show their appreciation by extending the season.

Charenee Stevens, Junior Forward

On the game in the post today...
To be honest with you, we've emphasized the post game all season long. But we are small, so other teams kind of tower over us. I think using the post and opening the game up gave us some leeway.

Ashley Bruner, Sophomore Forward

On the opportunity to play in the postseason...
If we're in the WNIT, we feel like we should win it. We're going to go into every game thinking that we're going to play our hardest. We want to win, and we're happy to be playing.

Appalachian State Head Coach Darcie Vincent

On team's inside struggles
I think we allowed them to take our inside game away from us. We worked a lot on that this week, and we felt like we should take advantage of our size inside. I think the pressure on our guards forced us to keep our heads down a little too long and we weren't able to get the ball inside. South Carolina did a good job of changing how they defended our post players. Sometimes they fronted, sometimes they went high, and our young players just didn't do a good job reading that.

On the play of Courtney Freeman
I thought Courtney did the best job on the block of anybody on our team. She did a good job of dictating the defense and keeping them behind her.

On the play of South Carolina's reserves
We did a good job of defending their starters, but their bench players really came out on fire. Their bench players scored 39 points, and their starters scored 28. So at least we knew the scouting report on the top five.

Appalachian State Forward Ashlen Dewart

On team's inside struggles
Like coach said we kind of gave away a lot of opportunities inside. We had several chances to score, but we just couldn't convert and that hurt us tonight.

Appalachian State Guard Courtney Freeman

On team's inside struggles
I thought we would be able to exploit our size advantage a little more than we did. They were very physical on defense, and I don't think we did a good job adjusting to their physicality.