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2 p.m.
Women's Basketball
at Virginia Tech
Quotes: Texas A&M 72, Duke 66
11/18/2015 10:33:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Joanne P. McCallie
Opening Statement:
“It was a great basketball game, good quality. It was like an NCAA [Tournament] game, which is good. It's pretty obvious what happened: offensive rebounds and turnovers. It's pretty obvious that was a bad point for us. You see them shooting worse than we did from the floor, but that doesn't matter if you're going to go get the rebound. There are good lessons for us as a team, the obvious ones, boxing out, not getting offensive rebounds, getting to the free throw line more than 18 times, not turning the ball over 20 times. There are just very, very good lessons for us. I thought that we fought hard. There was certainly a time there that we fought very hard, but the reality is that is how you have to play in the game the entire game, not just when you're trying to come back. Hopefully, we'll understand what that feels like, that intensity that we showed when we came back from 10 points down.”
On Rebecca Greenwell:
“I think Becca [Greenwell] is going hard, very, very aggressive. I love her attack mode. I particularly like when she drove to the basket and got past all the traffic and finished. It shows the player that she is off the bounce. Obviously Becca is known for her shooting, but she is a complete player. She can rebound, she can pass, she can shoot, and she can drive. That was really evident in this game, so that's excellent. The challenge being a captain, being able to lead a team, and get other people to do what they're supposed to do. That's her next step from a team point of view, is getting people to understand what has got to be done and getting them to do it.”
On Angela Salvadores and Crystal Primm:
“Angela [Salvadores] is rising; however, there's a lot she's got to do, defense, rebounding, knowing plays. She's still learning and coming back. Crystal [Primm] is definitely a great defender, as you know, so you want to get her in there. We did have to mix and match today with offense and defense subs. You don't really want to have to do that. You want players to fulfill what they can do on both sides of the ball, but it's November and we aren't there yet. We have people playing on one side of the ball more than the other, and we need to grow and change in that way. I think we will.”
On Kyra Lambert's maturation:
“I think she is growing every game. I think she is getting great experience. I think she is frustrated a little bit because she wants to do more. She knows she can do more, but there is something called a learning curve at this level. I think she is learning and growing, but look at her play all those minutes and here she is with four assists and ne turnover as a freshman point guard. That's a lot of pressure, a lot of ball pressure out there. She's growing, and again, she's got to learn how to command with her team. This is not an individual sport. You need all the individuals to play at their highest level but connect, and we're still working on that. We're not always connecting right, the way we should, so there's some good lessons there.“
On the bench's performance:
“I think it's again just learning, experience. They've got to come along. It was a pretty intense game. I didn't play as many people. I had a little bit shorter rotation, but they've got to come along. When you're trying to fight for playing time, if you do focus on defense and rebounding, you're going to find your way in. Kids don't always think right; you've got to think that. That's how you find your way in, then, of course you build from there, and we've got a couple of kids that I think will do that.”
On using the bench as a teaching tool:
“I wouldn't want to be on the bench. Who wants to be on the bench when you can play? I think you have to be competitive and you have to be ready to go and you have to stay focused. I don't think anybody, besides Angela, that came off the bench, really gave us a big lift.”
Redshirt Sophomore Guard Rebecca Greenwell
On what she needs to work on:
“Like what Coach P said, I'm just trying to be a better captain and better leader out there on the floor. Also, just rebounding, definitely getting some more boards, and continue to work on defense.”
On her tactics to bring the new players along:
“Talking to them, making sure they have the right mindset, especially coming into games like this. It's tough. We're going to face adversity. I'm just trying to get everyone on the same page.”
On how to help up the game of teammates:
“I just try to talk to everyone in the huddles to keep doing the little things, nothing specific. I think everyone did a good job and I think in the second half we all really came together and played a lot better together.”
Sophomore Forward/Guard Azurá Stevens
On more field goal attempts and changes made in the second half:
“I think it was just a matter of me demanding [the ball] more and moving more. The girl who was guarding me was really physical so I had to use my quickness to get around her and just repost. In the second half I had to adjust because that wasn't going to fly if I did that for two halves.”
On what their defense did that slowed her down:
“I think they denied the ball well, but I just have to move more. I have to let the offense flow and not try to just take over all the time.”
Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair:
Opening Statement:
“I thought you had two good teams trying to find themselves. Before the ball game, I asked my seniors to stand up and asked my juniors to stand up. We've got eight of them. They've got such great freshmen and sophomores, but this is a ball game whether you're on the road or whether you're at home, you've got to find a way to do it. Kids that have been in this situation before like [Jordan Jones and Courtney Walker] here make the right decision. This kid coming off an ACL, she played 15 minutes her first game, 22, and she just came in and kept going. I did not want to play her that many minutes just coming off of that ACL but she is the heart and soul of our team. This kid here is the best mid-range shooter in America. You've got a good one in Greenwell but this is Mid-Range City and she does a great job to hit the tough shots. It wasn't [Courtney] Williams's best ball game as you could tell. She had trouble guarding. It wasn't a good day for her, but she's an All-American. That's why a lot of people were here watching her tonight. She will do better but she's got to get better defensively and hit the easy shots. Duke, it boiled down to the end. [Rebecca] Greenwell in the first half hurt us. 8 out of 10, 6 rebounds, 22 points, 40 minutes. Eventually, your legs give out and you wear down a little and we did as good as we could trying to guard her. You just saw two of the best two guards in the country in Greenwell and Walker. To your credit you get her for two more years. I've got to lose all of my seniors this year. [Azurá] Stevens, she's just a nightmare to match up. Last year was even worse when you had [Elizabeth] Williams and you had to go put a 4 or 3 on her out there. Give Joanne [P. McCallie] a lot of credit. When you can recruit as well as Duke and you can have this building. This is my bucket list. I've completed my bucket list so you might not see me again. Duke – everything about this program is just class. It's just class. In all of the sports, that's something you should be very proud of. You've got a great coaching staff, you've got a great young team, they're going to get better and better and they're going to compete to win the ACC, but they're going to take some lumps just like us. We're going to get better, try to stay healthy, and try to improve.”
On the importance of bench scoring and rebounding:
“The biggest part of the ball game was in the first and second quarter when we got so many loose balls and we got into transition. This is how we beat you last year. We were down 15 with 11:30 to go and we made you miss and got into transition. It was like a highlight. That's what we were doing to stay in the game early. That gives us confidence. It's hard for me to run set plays all the time and particularly against your zone. They switched from man, which we were hurting them in man, to zone that hurt us because of their length. Twenty offensive boards, that's just guts and pride. Last year at our place they had 20 on us. I don't know at the end if we just wanted it a little bit more on the tough rebound. I kept alternating my two bigs in there. They have trouble scoring but they competed hard in there. They competed hard against two McDonald's All-Americans.”
On the play of Courtney Williams:
“It killed us, but she wasn't doing a whole lot until then. And then Danni Williams came in, that kid from New Mexico, she hasn't met a shot she doesn't like. I wanted her to shoot because we had nothing inside. We had one basket out of four post players, and the rest of it was [Jones] and [Walker] and Danni Williams. We stayed in the ball game. Had a couple of garbage baskets right before the half to give us confidence and the lead. We were lucky to be ahead at half. [Courtney] Williams just has to play better. You've had All-Americans here. You have a lot of All-Americans that I recruited and didn't get. You're not going to be at your best every night. She goes 5-for-14. Any coach in America would love to have her. Sometimes LeBron goes 7-for-21 but he does both ends of the court. That's why I have to get Courtney to realize that the defensive end is just as important as the offensive end.”
Texas A&M Senior Guard Jordan Jones:
On playing in front of her brother, Duke junior guard Matt Jones:
“I put on Snapchat earlier that this is probably going to be my favorite game of the year because it's so competitive with the history of Duke basketball and also being able to play in front of my brother and his significant other for the first time. It was very exciting. I just came out with a lot of confidence. I just wanted to basically show out for my brother because I don't get that chance very often. Part of it is just competing against him because he did score 16 the other night. I just love him so much. Just playing in front of him – I haven't played in front of him, really, since high school.”
Texas A&M Senior Guard Courtney Walker:
On her play in the second half after a slow first half:
“I think defensively it was still the same game plan. Just to tag her tight and be on her hip when she's coming off so she can't get the open 3s which is really what gets her and especially the entire team going. As far as with me, it's just having an attacking mentality. The more and more my team needed me to step up. When the second half came, just getting on the floor, you get the shellshock of how big they are and then you're like 'Okay, move your legs and just let my shots come to me.'”
Players Mentioned
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