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at Virginia Tech
Quotes: Duke 70, DePaul 63
3/27/2011 5:30:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Joanne P. McCallie
Opening Statement:
“It was just a great, physical game. It was an excellent basketball game. There was a lot of quickness, a lot of rebounds, and a lot of hustle out there. I'm very proud of our team to out-rebound and get after it a little on the boards and attack the lane as much as possible. DePaul is a terrific team. They have a lot of shooters that are willing to shoot the basketball so shot-contesting was pretty important to us. Jasmine, again, with her consistency and always attacking and always being in attack mode is so important to us. Jasmine is always doing that. Karima as well, in trying to get to the lane and trying to make plays off of each other. I thought they were outstanding. Chelsea as well, attacking, not settling, but trying to get them to defend us as much as possible. It was a good, strong game. It wasn't a perfect game, sometimes it wasn't a pretty game, but it was a good game for us to be aggressive.”
On facing Connecticut in the Regional Final Game:
“For us, it's about getting better at the game. So we look at this game that we played today and we see some pretty good things, but we also see some things that need improvement. If we can get better from this game, then that is what we plan on doing. Connecticut is obviously is a very good team, but that's how we focus. We focus on our side. I think that's what helps this time of year because the games come up quickly. Your prep time is to a minimum so you have to be ready to go. Hopefully we can do a bit better job sharing the basketball, not turning it over so much and continue to rebound and attack the lane like we did in this game.”
On beginning the game with a good start:
“I think it was a good strong start and that was great. I think that's always a good thing. At the same time, as far as minutes, the two halves didn't go together quite as well as we would have liked. Teams aren't going to just hang out, but they're going to attack you as much as possible. I think in the second half, we were not as aggressive. It took us a while to get to that aggressive point that I think we showed in the first 20 minutes. Again, that's another issue coming out and trying to put together a forty minute game and try to be aggressive throughout and not have the ebb and flows that can occur. But, it did occur for us. We missed some easy shots in the second half and we gave up some things on the defensive end and that made it much more of it basketball game. Hopefully we can do more attacking on both sides next time out.”
On getting back to the Regional Final Game:
“I am just really proud of my team and our leadership. We really have some special seniors as I think you know. Jasmine Thomas is an All-American in every sense of the word. Academically, on the court and in everything that she does. Karima Christmas is really showing her true colors and may be everyone's “almost” All-American in that regard because she has had some incredible games. Krystal Thomas didn't score today or play particularly well, but she's been a force for us defensively, rebounding-wise and leadership-wise. I think it really starts there. I think we have some eager players. Our junior players that have been around and seen some things and we have some young players that are coming in and are very, very hungry. It's great to advance in the tournament. It's really a lot of fun.”
Duke Senior Karima Christmas
On reaching the Elite Eight for the second straight year:
“We just take it one game at a time not really looking at what happened last year, but just trying to push for the team to get better as we play on.”
On her matchup against DePaul's Keisha Hampton and how difficult it was:
“I think we're similar players. We match up well. She's a great player. She can shoot, she can go low inside, and she plays multiple positions. I definitely wanted to go at her, be aggressive and just try to go in to the lane and try to get her into foul trouble. It was a great matchup; it was good having to play defense on her.”
On how attacking from the inside contributed to Duke's win:
“That's something we definitely harped on from the last game. We settled for outside shots in the last game and we went down in a deficit to Marist and we wanted to come out in this game and attack from the inside first. And, if we had open shots, we could try to shoot them, but we wanted to go inside first.”
Duke Senior Jasmine Thomas
On whether she feels if she has some unfinished business to take care of, after being in the regional final a year ago:
“I'm really just excited for my team, I'm excited for my seniors that we have the opportunity to be in an Elite Eight, and compete to get into the Final Four. We're excited for the opportunity and we're going to take it for what it is.”
DePaul Head Coach Doug Bruno
Opening Statement:
“This is the best group of women I've ever been blessed to be around. It's just a great group of young people and it's been a blessing and an honor to coach them. You never want to leave the season on a loss. 63 teams do and 1 doesn't, and you don't want to experience the crash and burn of this beautiful tournament. I can't say enough about these women who I've been blessed to coach, and it starts with our seniors and juniors. They've done so much to help us get to this point. I thank God for the blessing that is this group of people that I've been able to coach for these 5 years. Duke is a good basketball team, and they did a very good job. We had no answer for Christmas. We couldn't guard her, and nothing we tried to do could manage her. Fee Chester probably did the best job on her, but we were also very small with everybody healthy. It's pretty clear that Taylor Pikes wasn't able to play tonight. That really reduced our bench even more.”
On being outrebounded:
“At the first media timeout we'd already given up 6 points and 3 put-backs, and that was a huge key to the game. There was no need for us to be in the mental place that we were early in the game. We just tried to do too much too fast and everybody tried to make a homerun themselves. Those are two very important keys to tonight. I thought Keisha was growing into the role of being our go-to player. She really carried us against Notre Dame and Penn State and it's a tough ball game for Keisha. She's a very special player and already she's done so much for us but she had a tough night, and Duke made her have a tough night. Felicia Chester had a tough night. These players had tough nights tonight and that makes it difficult when your go-to players are having a tough struggle. And you combine that with not being able to guard Christmas on the other side of the ball and it's hard.”
On Keisha fouling out:
“It's huge. That's a part of her game that she's fixing, but she's still prone to committing fouls. Early in the game she let one go from the right wing, and our guards got confused and weren't back on defense. We took a quick one pass three from the right wing and then gave a layup that became a three point play the other way, so it became a 5 point swing in a quick second. Those are the kinds of things that when you lump them all together, you can't have those kinds of possessions and think you're going to win here. I want to make sure I'm giving Duke enough credit for what they've done tonight. Jasmine has done a great job and so did Christmas.”
DePaul Senior Sam Quigley
On game slipping away in the second half:
“I think Duke obviously turned up its defensive intensity, that had a lot to do with it. And we weren't really patient on offense. Coach talked during timeouts about trying to make game-winners when we really needed to just keep the ball and be patient.”
DePaul Junior Keisha Hampton
On if there was any added pressure playing in her hometown of Philadelphia:
“It was great to be back in my hometown. It was a great feeling to play in front of family and friends. There was no added pressure. I was fine with it.”
Opening Statement:
“It was just a great, physical game. It was an excellent basketball game. There was a lot of quickness, a lot of rebounds, and a lot of hustle out there. I'm very proud of our team to out-rebound and get after it a little on the boards and attack the lane as much as possible. DePaul is a terrific team. They have a lot of shooters that are willing to shoot the basketball so shot-contesting was pretty important to us. Jasmine, again, with her consistency and always attacking and always being in attack mode is so important to us. Jasmine is always doing that. Karima as well, in trying to get to the lane and trying to make plays off of each other. I thought they were outstanding. Chelsea as well, attacking, not settling, but trying to get them to defend us as much as possible. It was a good, strong game. It wasn't a perfect game, sometimes it wasn't a pretty game, but it was a good game for us to be aggressive.”
On facing Connecticut in the Regional Final Game:
“For us, it's about getting better at the game. So we look at this game that we played today and we see some pretty good things, but we also see some things that need improvement. If we can get better from this game, then that is what we plan on doing. Connecticut is obviously is a very good team, but that's how we focus. We focus on our side. I think that's what helps this time of year because the games come up quickly. Your prep time is to a minimum so you have to be ready to go. Hopefully we can do a bit better job sharing the basketball, not turning it over so much and continue to rebound and attack the lane like we did in this game.”
On beginning the game with a good start:
“I think it was a good strong start and that was great. I think that's always a good thing. At the same time, as far as minutes, the two halves didn't go together quite as well as we would have liked. Teams aren't going to just hang out, but they're going to attack you as much as possible. I think in the second half, we were not as aggressive. It took us a while to get to that aggressive point that I think we showed in the first 20 minutes. Again, that's another issue coming out and trying to put together a forty minute game and try to be aggressive throughout and not have the ebb and flows that can occur. But, it did occur for us. We missed some easy shots in the second half and we gave up some things on the defensive end and that made it much more of it basketball game. Hopefully we can do more attacking on both sides next time out.”
On getting back to the Regional Final Game:
“I am just really proud of my team and our leadership. We really have some special seniors as I think you know. Jasmine Thomas is an All-American in every sense of the word. Academically, on the court and in everything that she does. Karima Christmas is really showing her true colors and may be everyone's “almost” All-American in that regard because she has had some incredible games. Krystal Thomas didn't score today or play particularly well, but she's been a force for us defensively, rebounding-wise and leadership-wise. I think it really starts there. I think we have some eager players. Our junior players that have been around and seen some things and we have some young players that are coming in and are very, very hungry. It's great to advance in the tournament. It's really a lot of fun.”
Duke Senior Karima Christmas
On reaching the Elite Eight for the second straight year:
“We just take it one game at a time not really looking at what happened last year, but just trying to push for the team to get better as we play on.”
On her matchup against DePaul's Keisha Hampton and how difficult it was:
“I think we're similar players. We match up well. She's a great player. She can shoot, she can go low inside, and she plays multiple positions. I definitely wanted to go at her, be aggressive and just try to go in to the lane and try to get her into foul trouble. It was a great matchup; it was good having to play defense on her.”
On how attacking from the inside contributed to Duke's win:
“That's something we definitely harped on from the last game. We settled for outside shots in the last game and we went down in a deficit to Marist and we wanted to come out in this game and attack from the inside first. And, if we had open shots, we could try to shoot them, but we wanted to go inside first.”
Duke Senior Jasmine Thomas
On whether she feels if she has some unfinished business to take care of, after being in the regional final a year ago:
“I'm really just excited for my team, I'm excited for my seniors that we have the opportunity to be in an Elite Eight, and compete to get into the Final Four. We're excited for the opportunity and we're going to take it for what it is.”
DePaul Head Coach Doug Bruno
Opening Statement:
“This is the best group of women I've ever been blessed to be around. It's just a great group of young people and it's been a blessing and an honor to coach them. You never want to leave the season on a loss. 63 teams do and 1 doesn't, and you don't want to experience the crash and burn of this beautiful tournament. I can't say enough about these women who I've been blessed to coach, and it starts with our seniors and juniors. They've done so much to help us get to this point. I thank God for the blessing that is this group of people that I've been able to coach for these 5 years. Duke is a good basketball team, and they did a very good job. We had no answer for Christmas. We couldn't guard her, and nothing we tried to do could manage her. Fee Chester probably did the best job on her, but we were also very small with everybody healthy. It's pretty clear that Taylor Pikes wasn't able to play tonight. That really reduced our bench even more.”
On being outrebounded:
“At the first media timeout we'd already given up 6 points and 3 put-backs, and that was a huge key to the game. There was no need for us to be in the mental place that we were early in the game. We just tried to do too much too fast and everybody tried to make a homerun themselves. Those are two very important keys to tonight. I thought Keisha was growing into the role of being our go-to player. She really carried us against Notre Dame and Penn State and it's a tough ball game for Keisha. She's a very special player and already she's done so much for us but she had a tough night, and Duke made her have a tough night. Felicia Chester had a tough night. These players had tough nights tonight and that makes it difficult when your go-to players are having a tough struggle. And you combine that with not being able to guard Christmas on the other side of the ball and it's hard.”
On Keisha fouling out:
“It's huge. That's a part of her game that she's fixing, but she's still prone to committing fouls. Early in the game she let one go from the right wing, and our guards got confused and weren't back on defense. We took a quick one pass three from the right wing and then gave a layup that became a three point play the other way, so it became a 5 point swing in a quick second. Those are the kinds of things that when you lump them all together, you can't have those kinds of possessions and think you're going to win here. I want to make sure I'm giving Duke enough credit for what they've done tonight. Jasmine has done a great job and so did Christmas.”
DePaul Senior Sam Quigley
On game slipping away in the second half:
“I think Duke obviously turned up its defensive intensity, that had a lot to do with it. And we weren't really patient on offense. Coach talked during timeouts about trying to make game-winners when we really needed to just keep the ball and be patient.”
DePaul Junior Keisha Hampton
On if there was any added pressure playing in her hometown of Philadelphia:
“It was great to be back in my hometown. It was a great feeling to play in front of family and friends. There was no added pressure. I was fine with it.”
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