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Women's Basketball
vs Countdown to Craziness
Quotes: Duke 89, Kentucky 68
12/21/2014 6:04:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Joanne P. McCallie
Opening Statement:
“Just a good game for us to play before Christmas. Obviously an aggressive game and we got to really test ourselves out in a couple areas. I was really happy to see us have such balanced scoring and look for each other. Some pretty good defense there but we can improve on that. Overall, just a good strong game for us to get better to take into the holiday season and to learn from as we go on to next”
On post players handling the ball:
“It's been in the mix. It has been in the mix from the beginning of the season. We have a lot of confidence in our posts' ability to attack and they had opportunities off the bounce. I just think that we did a bit better job of it today overall. Now we still had turnovers. The posts had a lot of turnovers. We're a work in progress with that, but I think we all have a great deal of confidence in finding mismatches and executing. I think the critical part of the game is the mismatch Azurá (Stevens) presented late in the second in getting the ball into her on the block over and over again. That was done by a variety of people, post players and guards. So the more we can play off each other and play together, the more people can handle the basketball, the less you just have to put it in one person's hands. I think that makes us very dangerous.”
On Amber Henson:
“She gave great minutes. Really proud of Amber. She played smart. She played aggressive. She was always looking for things and not afraid to handle the ball herself. I thought Amber was outstanding. Probably the best game to date for Amber just for all of her minutes and what she did and how she moved on defense to how she looked for her teammates. She was super.”
On Mercedes Riggs:
“I wish I got her more minutes. It didn't work out that way. But boy, the minutes she played were very valuable. She gives the team a lot of confidence. She plays with a lot of aggression. That was a great steal. That was fun to see her get that steal.”
On scoring points against Kentucky's defense:
“I think we can score points. The question is, can we outrebound and defend and get the stops we need at critical times. I think Becca [Greenwell] said it, this team was different this time. When a run was coming or they were trying to have a run, I thought the stops were there and they found each other. I think we can score points and I think we can score points in a lot of different ways. We've just got to play both sides of the ball really aggressively.”
On going 3-0 over the past three games:
“I think it was important to improve. I know results are very important, but we're still early in the season. I love the games we've been playing and they've been hard and challenging for the most part. I think the key for us is did we get better each game. We did. We got better each game. We grew a lot. We're going to pick up form that. We're going to have some great film from this particular game heading into the next game. That's the way you have to keep doing it. You have to keep getting better each game. Usually the outcome will take care of itself.”
On scoring inside:
“I'd say it was the players that figured it out and it think we have to continue to have the players figure things out on the floor. I thought they did a great job. Great job playing together, playing smart, understanding what we were trying to do. I think everyone was locked in. I didn't sense anyone drifting out. I thought everybody was really focused to do what we do.”
On seeing entry angles:
“I think learning each other. I think what you're seeing is our understanding where they can throw the ball to various teammates. There's quite a variability there. You think about Azurá and what her reach is. What your reach is to Elizabeth or Amber. They figured out how to lob the ball to Becca. Becca uses her body really well to post up. They were lobbing it in there too. Just trying to find each other. You know we're a young team. It doesn't happen overnight. It takes some time. I think this team is doing a great job learning those things about each other.”
Duke R-Freshman Rebecca Greenwell
On the team chemistry:
“I think this game it showed a lot better, we had a lot of good looks. I know Sierra [Calhoun] had a nice pass to [Elizabeth Williams] on transition and I thought we were definitely looking for each other the entire game and it showed.”
On how it felt to have that performance against a team she grew up around:
“It felt great, especially with my family in the stands cheering me on. It was hard to sit out last year against Kentucky, but we played great against them last year. To go home for the holidays with this win is a great feeling.”
Duke Freshman Azura Stevens
On today's win and performance overall:
“These three games have been a confidence booster for me, but really every game I'm trying to go out and help my team. It is better when we all play our hearts out and work together to get the win.”
On the comparison between this game versus other tough opponents:
“We've had some other physical games. We're a pretty strong team so just battling back to get the win.”
Kentucky Head Coach Matthew Mitchell:
Opening Statement
“Tough game for us obviously today. Not what we wanted. You get on the road against a good team and shoot so poorly. I thought really at the beginning of the game we were really doing a good job attacking their zone, really able to create open shots, just a really tough shooting day. I think when they figured out that we were not scoring very much it was really embodied in the momentum and they just really buried us there in the first half. But we came back and did a better job in the second half. I thought we could turn it over and we got that done and we were able to limit our turnovers, which was good. We just had to be sharper to beat a good Duke team today. Hats off to Duke. Good game for them today. I don't think there's anything but improvement that we can see from this game, but I'm glad we played it. I wish we could have played better but we certainly intend to get better from it.”
On being able to make a comeback on previous games:
“I thought the hole was too big. We had not been in that big of a hole and you saw us, we made a nice run and got back in it. We outscored them by 10 in the first 10 minutes [of the second half] but the hole was big. Then we were playing some young post players who defensively really struggled to defend. I would not have imagined their post players were a little shaky handling the ball they dribbled the ball all the way down and shot layups and so that's a team thing. We should have been able to keep in front. We tried to work on that this week but I think we got discouraged because of the offensive woes and so I thought we were the less composed team today and Duke was able to push back after we cut the lead. So real physical under the glass. We tried to box out and got some fouls while we were boxing out and then it's really tough when those bodies are flying in the air and certainly they had more size than us. I just thought they played real hard, real sharp today and they were able to make enough plays. They turned it over a bunch but they certainly made enough plays to get the victory. Good game for them.”
On Alexis Jennings' play in the second half
“It was good offensively. I think she did some good things. She fouled too much defensively and still has a way to go defensively just positioning and getting out of position, but every minute she's out on the floor is a benefit to our team. As you can see she has some real gifts offensively and if we could have gotten the ball there a little more in the high post we could have done better with that. We just had a hard time. We've got to get better with that. The thing with this time period is 4-6 weeks where we are short Bria Goss. I thought this was a great time today for our young players to play, and they got in and took it on the chin but they competed and played hard. So this only counts one loss if we handle it that way and if we go back and get better from it actually it can be something good for us but we got to have really great attitudes and really I think our young players are doing a good job. Our veteran players have to get more sharp and we just got to get on the same page. We were just defensively out of sync today. The game plan was to try to pressure Duke but we were just out of position and it's just another step we have to take as a basketball team. We had to play really sharp to counteract their size and we just weren't sharp today. They got too many looks to the rim.”
On missing Bria Goss
“I think Bria embraces that role and the problem we had today which was a great one was that we didn't have anyone to embrace that role today. That desire of “I'm going to do a great job.” Early in the game when we were struggling to score we were still getting some stops and dead ball rebounds and then people wouldn't get up in the press and pressure and sometimes we would and sometimes we wouldn't and that's not our formula. We've just got to be sharper.”
Kentucky Guard Jennifer O'Neil
On Azia Bishop's shot leading to a possible comeback
“Yeah I think the whole team felt we were going to make a comeback. We missed a lot on defense which is why we got so far behind.”
Players Mentioned
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