Debbie Blake Quotations

She played a great game but I thought everyone contributed.

She really stepped up and was basically unstoppable.

I expect them to crash the boards a lot. They play a mix of man-to-man and zone on defense.

I think we all stepped up on our defense in the second half.

I think so because of where we've had to come from. This was a great, great effort by these girls. They deserve all the credit.

We've got to box out and our point guard has got to get back on defense. We've just got to play good general defense. How we want them to play each individual girl is different.

We just need to move our feet offensively and be patient.

Towers is a very athletic team and we're going to have to slow down their inside game and keep them from running out on the break. They play a lot like West Hall and Paige Hanson so we know what to do, we just have to stop it.

I've been telling them to shoot the ball all season. I'm glad she took it.

This is our second time to beat a number one seed. We did it against Pickens (in the Region 7-AAA tournament) just to get here, and now we did it in Franklin County.

They stayed with it and I think they're starting to learn that you can never quit because there is always a chance to come back.

This loss is difficult. But our team will bounce back, they have hearts the size of this gym.

It's all about teamwork. And right now things are working for us.

It just means that the expectations are higher and they have a lot of hard work to do over the summer. Expectations will be higher, not only from me, but from the area and their families and the community.

It's been a little tough trying to get everyone to stay calm and focused. But I'd rather have that problem than deciding which game I wanted to go watch.

(Davenport) did a great job. She was pulling down rebounds for us, she was hitting shots for us. She's a great player and she did a great job inside for us.

That may be the best we've played since I've been here. We worked hard over the break on playing better defense and shooting the ball better. I think we showed what we're capable of when we do those things well.

I've got nine pages of notes. We've been working hard all week, my staff has been working hard, and (the players) listened to us -- that was the key. The girls focused and did everything we asked.

They (West Hall) just executed better than we did. The key was we gave them too many second and third shots.

It was just a tremendous effort by these girls. They are just doing everything we're asking of them right now.

I'm real proud of the girls. They played real hard, with a lot of heart.

If our game plan is correct, we hope we can do the same thing, (tonight).

I didn't expect to be here. I believed that we could improve all season and possibly sneak in, which we did. But it's virtually impossible to beat a number one seed. They've just really improved and stepped up. They're coming along and that's due to hard, passionate work.

I believe it did help, along with playing West Hall and all the other teams. That really makes a difference, playing in a strong league like we have. Three teams in the sweet 16 really says a lot about Region 7-AAA.

The girls focused and did everything we asked.