Upcoming Event: Women's Basketball versus Baylor on November 3, 2025 at 12 p.m.
Women's Basketball
vs Baylor
Quotes: Duke 62, Virginia Tech 46
2/19/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Joanne P. McCallie
Opening Statement:
“It was definitely a defensive game for us ? I'm very proud of the effort, given the adversity we faced relative to travel, relative to sickness, and all sorts of things happening with our team. I'm proud of everybody regarding the effort put forth. It's great to be +15 on the boards, we were aggressive there, we played defense well, we could have scored more points, but we turned the ball over too much to capitalize on that. It was just a good all around, a game to get people involved and to work on some things on the floor as well. Carrem [Gay] had interesting stats of six steals and six offensive rebounds, and if that doesn't speak to energy then I don't know what does. It was good to see the things Jasmine [Thomas] did well on the court as far as ball distribution and defense. We got a little bit better tonight and we're happy about that. Now we have to get healthy and go from here.”
On breaking away towards the end of the first half:
“It was intensity in our defense. We got turnovers, were pressing, running and finding each other. I specifically remember a pass from Abby [Waner] to [Karima Christmas] in the paint, and I had been telling them we needed more paint points, because we had started playing from the outside in. It's OK for shooters to do that, but everybody was doing that including our post players. We started a run of aggressiveness on defense, and I felt we got more paint points, and that Abby to Karima was the first one we really got and went from there.”
On the usage of the bench:
“Every game is different and you go with what you need at the time. They all offer so much in terms of different things, and Chelsea [Hopkins] gave us a great lift off the bench today. She wasn't in the rotation at Tennessee because others were playing quite well, so it's just different every night but I don't hesitate. I feel good about our players, and giving people an opportunity if the situation presents itself.”
On the offense and shot selection today:
“We were OK today ? a little jumpy in terms of moving the ball and executing, especially early. Shots were flying rather quickly and I think we were OK today, not great. To have 62 points shooting 36-percent ? we missed layups and easy opportunities. In the second half we moved the ball, found each other more, and that's most important thing. Every game is different and breaks a little differently.”
Duke Senior Abby Waner
On having one more home game in Cameron:
“We have two games first. Coach [Joanne P. McCallie] and I were in Cameron today and we just started talking about it. I need to be politically correct and say that we have to play Maryland first and Wake Forest first but it's going to be really difficult to play that last game on Sunday [March 1 vs. North Carolina].”
On getting points early:
“It's funny what happens when you actually look to take wide open layups, you get two points. That's something that I haven't done as of lately and Jas[mine Thomas] has always done a consistent job of getting me the ball on fast break layups so that's where a couple of those [early points] came from. They went to a zone a couple times and we did a good job of at least moving the ball still even though our shots weren't dropping. It was nice to just get going.”
Duke Sophomore Jasmine Thomas
On effects of first-half run:
“It gave us the energy we needed. We started off a little too slow, a little too flat. Once we got more paint shots and got our defense going everything took off from there.”
Duke Senior Carrem Gay
On what was said in timeout before first-half run:
“The message was ?keep attacking, take care of the ball and get the ball in the paint.' I think we answered pretty well.”
On keeping Virginia Tech's two leading scorers, Utahya Drye and Lindsay Biggs in check:
“That's always an emphasis to keep people under their average. We focus on limiting penetration, being there on the catch, disrupting all their shots and making it tough for them to score.”
Virginia Tech Head Coach Beth Dunkenberger
Opening Statement:
“I thought we had a stretch there about halfway through the first half where we didn't handle their press well, and we turned it over three or four times in a row and they scored on it and went on a nice little stretch. Take away that and take away their offensive boards, I'm not terribly disappointed with our output. But it's a very good Duke team, they're a very solid team, and their ability to rebound the basketball, especially on the offensive end, is just unbelievable.”
On the differences between the first and second halves:
“They've got a few different presses that they do, but I thought we broke all of their presses initially early. Where we struggled is we put some subs in and they put the press back on with some of our subs and we weren't as patient, but unfortunately we turned it over a few times in a row there. It was a situation where we didn't have great personnel to break that press and they threw a variety of presses at us.”
On the pressure of Duke's press:
“I think it has to do with the size and the level of the athlete. They've got quite a few All-Americans, and I'm not talking about honorable mention All-Americans, I'm talking about first and second team All-Americans that are 6'5” and can block a shot, so you can get out there and gamble a little bit but they keep running fresh kids at you and they switch it up. They've got two or three different presses, so you've got to stop and think about how you're breaking each one, and then they just wait for you to make a mistake and they pounce.”
On maintaining team effort:
“We've played a lot of good teams and have been very, very close, and unfortunately our record doesn't show how we've played in games. But I think that as a staff we have to keep reminding them of what our goals are and what we're working towards, and reinforce the positive things even when we have losing situations. We know that we're this close in a lot of games, and not many teams have been successful coming into Cameron and winning, but we took it down to a last second shot at home and that's without several of our top scorers from last year. But we try not to dwell on what we don't have and focus on what we do have, and look for the positive in every situation. Sometimes it's not very easy.”
Players Mentioned
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