Quotes: Duke 105, Clemson 53

Duke Coach Gail Goestenkors

Opening Statement:
“We were slow getting out of the gates. Clemson came ready to play and they had the attack mindset. I wasn't proud of our defense initially, but I thought that once we buckled down, especially in the second half, we did a much better job. I think this was a good game for us. I think that we needed to have a game where we really came on strong, did a better job on the glass, played with more freedom, and had more fun. That's the kind of game we were looking to have.”

On Duke's rebounding:
“We were minus one and we're better than that. We know that to do the things we want to do, we have to become a better rebounding team. We were good early, but we just lost our focus and commitment to the rebounding. In the second half, we did an exceptional job.”

On Duke's bench play:
“I thought they did a great job. They gave us a spark and kept the energy level up. There was really no drop-off at all, in many instances they really did some great things; Brit[ney Mitch]'s pass, Bridget [Mitchell] on the boards did a great job as well, Joy [Cheek] hitting those baseline jumpers, Emily [Waner] was more aggressive than she had been the past couple of games, and K[eturah] J[ackson] gave us good minutes as well. I thought that everybody who came in really contributed.”

On preparing for tougher opponents:
“We just need to continue everything we do. We know rebounding is going to be pretty key, our defense is going to be key, and transition's going to be key. We have all the same keys that we had for everybody except we're going to have to be better in every aspect of the game. A high intensity level for every single game is not realistic. We had a couple of lulls. You are fortunate when you can not be at your best either emotionally or physically and still come away with the win. Then tonight I feel like we got back to Duke Basketball and the style that we like to play. That'll be good for us and we needed a game like this going into Thursday's game.”

On Clemson's transition game:
“They got a couple of transition buckets early, they attacked us, and they were playing with confidence. It got our attention very quickly. I knew this would be a good game for us because Clemson is one of the better transition teams in the conference. It was a good test for us and a good measure. They took advantage early on and then we responded, which we need to see.”

Alison Bales

On rebounding:
“Well, her [Coach Gail Goestenkors] halftime speech was pretty inspiring. It was a little louder than what she just said. In the first half we just weren't crashing hard enough and then in the second half we really did a great job on the boards.”

On having a solid win:
“It's always fun to have a game like this. And what I mean by that is like the chest bumps, the fast breaks, and just when everyone's getting into it, and the whole team's scoring and sharing the ball really well. It's good for team sprit, and it's exciting to play.”

On dominating at the free throw line:
“Well, I made my free throws, so I guess that's what really helped my points. It was nice to be recognized for the blocked shot award thing. I'm glad that I went 13-13 because my free throw percentage was a little lacking, so it's good to step it up.”

On staying focused with a big lead:
“Coach G wasn't focusing necessarily on the score. So minus 1 on the boards at halftime was one of her focuses. That makes us refocus. We have other goals besides just the score that we need to work on and that we need to improve. Our goal isn't just to win games like this; we want to win the big games when it counts, and so for that to happen we need to be able to reach our goals in all of our games.”

Carrem Gay

On Duke's second half performance:
“It boosts our confidence because we know that we can crash the boards hard and that we can rebound. It's one of our strengths that we've been going away from. Just knowing that we out rebounded them by 28 was a really good confidence booster for our team.”

Brittany Mitch

On building confidence:
“It definitely helps my confidence. I got to find a lot of people like Carrem [Gay]; I got to find her a couple of times on fast breaks. Everything was flowing, so we got to move the ball, so it helps everyone's confidence not just mine.”

Clemson Coach Cristy McKinney

On the result of the game:
“Duke's a great basketball team. If you play a great basketball team and you lay down and die, don't play with any effort, you're going to get killed and embarrassed, and that's exactly what happened in the second half. They wanted the ball, they went and got the ball, and we didn't do anything about it.”

On the team's demoralization:
“We just didn't play the same. We quit playing. We turned it over and they capitalized every time we turned it over. And we hung our heads and we never picked our heads back up. Duke does the little things ? they'll take charges, they rotate defensively, they box out. They do the little things and we didn't do the little things at all tonight to compete with a caliber of team like Duke.”

On the team's strategy for defending Alison Bales:
“[Our strategy was] just play zone, like we do and try to keep her out of the paint. If she's in the paint, get in front. But I thought we helped her early because every time she touched it, we just smacked her, put her on the line and she's a good free throw shooter. She was tonight.”