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Women's Basketball
vs Baylor
Quotes: Duke 70, Wake Forest 63
1/4/2015 4:37:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Joanne P. McCallie
Opening Statement
“I was really proud of our team for their focus and concentration. Obviously we'd like to come out stronger than we did, but the key was how we responded to that. I thought the team responded very well. I thought Elizabeth [Williams] showed tremendous leadership and aggression on the floor, which was really contagious and wonderful and it was great to see her play so, so hard, especially against a tough opponent with [Dearica] Hamby out there. She's just a very good player. And Ka'lia [Johnson] as well, leadership and played very, very hard and made tough plays and made easy plays. She did a great job combination of both in leading us defensively with Elizabeth. We got better. We got stuff to work on and we will.”
On Sierra Calhoun's departure and the team's response today without her on the floor:
“I think character is revealed when difficult things come up in your life. That's why sports is such a neat metaphor for a lot of things. I expected [the slow start], but I didn't expect it to stay. I thought we just had to work through together as a team and we did. I thought we demanded of each other. I don't think anyone got too wild or crazy. I thought we just kept pushing, kept pushing to get to where we needed to get energetically. Again, I thought Elizabeth had a lot to do with that. She pushed over the top. Ka'lia pushed over the top and you could just kind of see us get back to where we are a little bit.”
On what went well for the team during the 24-4 run:
“I think the team got consecutive stops and I thought we slowed down in offense.”
On what she said to the players at halftime:
“We just talked about things we were trying to execute a little bit. I think the players were kind of fed up with that half a little bit. I think they realized a little bit what is in our control and what we can do. I think they were just ready to wrap that half up and get going.”
On freshmen struggling in the first half:
“I think they're just gaining experience. Everything is a new experience for them and they're just gaining it and doing a great job. I love to see players that may start slow that finish strong. That's a sure sign of character of a competitor because sometimes you do start slow a little bit. And sometimes you have games where both halves go great. But the reality is how you bounce back I think.”
On the short roster for the remainder of the season:
“I think we're fortunate to have some really great players. All of the players play so we have a nice rotation. I think we'll continue to build our rotation a little bit and just continue to look for things to maximize our strengths. Trying to get the ball to people where they like to get. We'll just continue to do that and evolve through the season.”
On the guard rotation and whether Mercedes Riggs will see more time:
“I think you'll be seeing more of everybody. It's just that time of year. Mercedes [Riggs], Erin Mathias and things of that nature. We'll grow our bench sort of as we go and that's the neat thing about a team. I don't worry so much about scoring because I know it can come from a lot of places. But I do worry about stops. I do worry about rebounding. I do worry about turnovers because those things can really cost you in games. We can score a lot of points. We've shown that. We can also score fewer points. We've shown that too I guess. This was sort of lower scoring to some degree, but just what matters is what we can control and we better be good at that.”
On Oderah Chidom playing on the wing today:
“I think that's important not only for Oderah, but for our team because Oderah professionally is going to be pushed out to the wing so I think that experience for her is very important. She's pretty versatile so she'll play three or four and probably a little more three.”
Duke Senior Elizabeth Williams
On keeping the team together in adverse situations:
“I think it was important for us to emotionally have everyone on the same page. It's definitely tough losing a player and Sierra [Calhoun]'s great, we love her and I think it was important for us as seniors to make sure the team focuses on each other and what we have with us today.”
On playing against Wake Forest's Dearica Hamby:
“We talked about total team focus for us defensively on her; in the matchup we were talking about always knowing where she is and trying to be physical with her and disrupt her rhythm and I think we did a good job of attacking her on both ends.”
Duke Senior Ka'lia Johnson
On how plays resulting in charges help momentum:
“Any hustle play is always good for us and that fuels our offense so if we go down there and get a great stop, whether it's a charge, a block, a steal, that's a way we fuel our offense and get into that scoring but we have to focus on defense first. That's what we did with getting those stops and it turned into something good and we went down and took care of business.”
On the difficulty of the Wake Forest press:
“Anytime you're faced with a press you have to one, slow down and see the floor. We have girls flashing middle and the key for us is to not hold onto the ball so much and try to beat them off the dribble and if you pass it to open areas it makes it better to break the press. I think we did a great job of not holding onto the ball too long and just push it up the floor instead of one guard trying to push it up the floor because it's not going to work.”
Wake Forest head coach Jen Hoover:
Opening Statement
“I'm just really proud of this team, the focus and intensity we came out with. We're obviously disappointed in the outcome, but we worked hard to come in and I felt like we got a lot of really good looks early and honed in on some things we were working on.”
On Duke's 23-4 run:
“There are games of runs. When you go through a period that you can't make a field goal, you have to have someone that can get fouled and go to the free throw line and shoot free throws. Today, the free throw line was not kind to us. It's been a strength of ours this year. We've been shooting over 70 percent from the line and at that point in the game, you need to go up there confidently and knock down free throws. I thought the three charges [Duke] was able to step in and take were big momentum changers.”
On each team scoring just four points over a five-minute stretch:
“I knew it was a defensive battle for a few minutes. Some of the things we focused on, I thought we were really good at executing. Our defensive gameplan and offensively. One of our emphases was trying to keep them off the boards. They're such a good rebounding team, we really focused on that. We tried to eliminate their second chance scoring opportunities because we feel they get a lot of points off of those.”
On the effectiveness of the team's press:
“We knew coming in we thought it would be one of the things we could keep them guessing with. I was pleased with our ability to get up and get into it. I think that was partly because we were able to put it on and put it off.”
Wake Forest senior forward Dearica Hamby:
On Duke's defense:
“They're long. Getting the ball in was a struggle for us today. The first half it was working wonders for us.”
Players Mentioned
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