Postgame Quotes: Duke 116, Lander 29

Duke Head Coach Gail Goestenkors

Opening Statement
“Just kind of a tough game to play. I give Lander credit. I think they played really hard. They're very feisty. And they never gave up and gave us a chance to really work on our transition game and some different things defensively, but it was just a tough game. I'm pleased that we had such balanced scoring. I thought everybody contributed both on offense and defense and we saw some good things.”

On trying not to run up the score
“It's basically impossible. Towards the end we finally said no more fast breaks because we could fast break almost at any opportunity. We wanted to get better so we basically just stopped running the ball to try and work on some quarter court stuff, but even that's difficult because it's hard to tell players when they have breakaway layups not to shoot them.”

On the team's depth
“It's good and it'll pay off. Our practices are very intense. We push one another and I think that's what's going to make us better in the long run, is the ability day in and day out in practice to push one another and be demanding of one another because we know that if you're not playing your ?A' game then there's somebody on the bench that's breathing down your neck for playing time.”

On the team's passing ability
“I think this is our best passing team that we've ever had. I think we had too many turnovers, unforced errors, but I also think this is probably the most exciting team that we've had because we're a very, very unselfish team and we pass the ball well and we see the floor well. I think we're going to have some really exciting fast break opportunities that will be fun to watch for the fans.”

On the regular season opener at Penn State
“I don't think we're ready for that yet. I think we've still got a good bit to work on. We saw some weaknesses today ? really on both ends of the floor some things that we can work on. I'm glad we've got another week to just really get better.”

On specific weaknesses of the team
“Sometimes we steal the ball, we get a turnover, and we're in such a rush to score that we turn the ball over unnecessarily and we can't have that. I thought defensively we were taking too many chances, so we took ourselves out of position. Obviously, in the second half they were 6-for-13 from the three-point line, so we've just got to do a better job staying in the play and not always going for the block and not always going for the steal and play some position defense very aggressively.”

On the play of the freshmen
“I thought they did a good job. I thought Carrem [Gay] gave us some nice minutes. She played very well, very much under control. Brittany [Mitch] hitting the threes, that was really nice to see as well. And then I thought Abby [Waner] played just really a nice overall floor game on both ends of the floor.”

Duke Student Athletes

Alison Bales

On her solid defensive and offensive play
“I've been working on my game in practice a lot, obviously. The guards were really doing a good job passing and on defense pressuring the outside.”

On good crowd support
“I think that Duke is pretty famous for their fans; the students and other fans putting their full support behind the men's and women's teams. I think that they pretty much did that tonight.”

Monique Currie

On playing her first game with the freshman class
“The freshman class has been doing an excellent job. I don't know you can't really get a feel for it in a game like this. But in practice, we get after it and I enjoy playing with all of them. They all contribute different things to the team and I think that they'll be a big help for us this year.”

Monique Currie and Jessica Foley on playing their first games after injuries

“Well, I felt fine. It's nice to be able to play and not have any nagging injuries.”
-Currie

“I felt good too.”
-Foley

Lander Head Coach Kevin Pederson

Opening Statement
“I think coming in to this game everyone knew it was going to be rough. We lost our starting point guard and starting center in September. We wanted to come in and compete. We wanted to show that we could compete hard and make them execute against us and at least have to work hard. We were very grateful that they gave us an opportunity to come up here and play. I appreciate them giving us an opportunity and our players appreciate it. This is one of the top venues in college basketball and it is a special opportunity that not many Division II teams get. We are going to look at it in a couple of ways. It is a great opportunity to come out and compete against one of the best teams in the nation. Our players are going to realize that this will make them better. We are not going to see a team that pressures like that, with a good offense and that much size.”