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Women's Basketball
vs #16 Baylor
Quotes: Duke 70, UMass 46
12/14/2015 10:06:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Joanne P. McCallie
Opening Statement:
“Just working on things. On not having full practices and things. Finals are now over. It was a really good feeling for the team to get on the floor. I think the second half better reflects the way we'd like to play than the first half. I was very pleased with Lyneé [Belton] playing steady and very poised. I just think it's very important to let the game come to you and I thought she did that. I thought Azurá [Stevens] was going after the basketball. I love the fact that we had nine turnovers. I don't think we've done that all year. It's better basketball when you don't turn the ball over. We got a little bit better today and looking forward to a nice test on Thursday.”
On using a taller lineup to start the second half:
“I think that playing defense and rebounding are so critical. These games occur at the margins. You've got to win the defensive battle and the rebounding battle. When we play our bigger lineup, I think we have an opportunity to dominate in the paint and that's a good place to dominate. I will go to that lineup or use that lineup. I'm very confident in the players. Oderah [Chidom]'s got a lot of minutes, so does Azurá. Lyneé is trying to get those minutes. I just feel like they're very capable of rebounding of attacking and getting to the free throw line and maybe the only thing you sometimes lack is three-point shooting but that's not really true. Azurá needs to get out there and take more threes and stretch the defense. So there's a lot of pluses to it and we will definitely use it.”
On Azurá playing the wing:
“I'm really hoping that through this break, each player can really work on things. Like Azurá can be a great three-point shooter. She can be fabulous. I know Becca [Greenwell] is known to be our three-point shooter, but I want Azurá to contend for that because she has the ability to do that. That's something throughout break we can look at. That does give her the opportunity to be more on the outside. On the outside coming in. I think that's good.
On Lyneé and Kendall Cooper:
“I felt very confident. I thought Kendall did some very nice things. I thought Oderah was steady and good. I thought they all had a part in that. As you know, we played that lineup so much last year. We had to out of necessity. But it is awfully nice to get to go back and forth between different kinds of lineups, which we did in the second half, which we kind of mixed and matched. We'll keep working on it.”
On points of emphasis at halftime:
“Just play Duke basketball and get after it. The tempo was sort of funny. We kind of played a tempo that suited them. They were sitting in a zone. Like most teams will do, they won't play. They wait till 10 seconds on the shot clock. That doesn't lead for exciting basketball. We got more of the tempo that we needed in the second half.”
On returning to the national championship game:
“As a coach you believe every year. That's the funny thing about coaching. I'd have thought I'd gone about 10 times by now. You really do believe every year. Some years, people pick you more than others, think you're better or not. What's fun is not to pay attention to what anybody else says but to try and create what we want to create. I always feel like that's a possibility and something to do. It is funny that it's in Indy. That's where I was last in the national championship game. But all I can say is you always believe. You always dream of that and want the team to. One thing I've learned through the years is it's got to come from the team. They have to decide “let's get to Indy, Let's find a way there.' That's not something that you can totally push on them.”
On the freshmen:
“It's hard. Just as individuals, they're growing and they're learning. That's really all I can say. The freshmen will start to make a turn in January. I don't think any of our freshmen are playing particularly good basketball. I think that what happens is they always get caught up in they want to do something versus Duke basketball. They always go back and forth between that and that hurts them. Again, we've had moments. They've all had moments. But to be a consistent player, you have to really pay attention to what we're all trying to do. You have to see the macro. Too many times, young players are micro. What their game is. You try to break them out of that. Sometimes you don't play them as much. Sometimes you stick with them through difficulties. It's a combination of things. You've got to understand Duke basketball. I think some of our folks need to watch a little more film. Not with me, but on their own. Watch some film and understand how the game is played. It's just a totally different level and they're still making that adjustment.”
Redshirt Freshman Forward Lyneé Belton
On her performance in her first collegiate start:
“I think I played really good tonight for a first collegiate start. There's definitely some things I could have done better like getting my stamina up a little. But I got some good o-boards – I think I only had one but I think I did pretty good with rebounds. I had to find my teammates and they had to find me. We just kind of flowed through that.”
On opponents remaining on the schedule:
“In our locker room, we have the schedule posted and it just says, 'game one,' 'game two'. We don't really look at the opponent too much because every game we have the same mentality of playing Duke basketball. We definitely defend differently because not everyone plays the same way, but we don't really look at the opponents as being harder teams than others.”
On whether the team has reached its potential yet:
“We've seen bits and pieces of it. I can't say when we'll do it – it's up to us. We can't really put a date on it. But we've seen bits and pieces of it, especially in Cancun. We talk about it all the time, if we play how we were in the islands and just keep going from there and building each day.”
Sophomore Forward/Guard Azurá Stevens
On playing well enough to reach the national championship:
“We've just got to go out there and do it. We've just got to play Duke basketball and that will take us far.”
On whether defense is an underrated part of her game:
“I think just becoming more of a complete player is something I'm trying to work on. I've talked to Coach about it, but just becoming more defensive-minded and letting offense come to me and not being so focused on that. So I'm working on that.”
On the team's perimeter defense:
“We just focus on it. We know teams are going to try to shoot us out of the zone and whichever defense we play, we just try to do the little intangibles to keep them where we want them. So when we play zone, we focus on shutting down the perimeter shots and when we play man, it's one-on-one stops.”
On her improved free throw shooting:
“I was in the gym shooting free throws because I know my percentage was horrible last year. So it's what you've got to do – when you don't have something you like you've got to make a change about it. So I've just been working on that.”
On her open looks in the third quarter:
“It's what the defense gives me and wherever my teammates find me, if I have a shot, it's cool – I'll shoot it. And if not, I'll pass it to my teammates. It's just the flow of the game.”
UMass head coach Sharon Dawley:
Opening Statement:
“I thought we fought right to the end.I think there was just a time in the game where we got a lot of good opportunities and missed a lot of great shots and Duke obviously was able to make their shots. There seemed to be a lot of threes draining at one period of time. I thought had we made a lot of those shots or some of those shots we would have been able to stay in striking distance. But our goal coming here was to play up, prepare for the A-10, which is a phenomenal league as I'm sure you guys know, gain some confidence and to learn from this experience. I think we accomplished those goals, particularly the lady on my left. Maggie [Mulligan] did a great job for us. Only a sophomore with limited minutes as a freshman because we had Kim [Pierre-Louis], who is actually playing pro in Romania, played over her. But she came in tonight and got 12 rebounds for us. Against Duke, that's a great starting point for Maggie. Now we can go home and remind her every day if you can get 12 rebounds against Duke you can get to 16 or 18 against everybody else. I think we accomplished our goals. You don't like to lose ever, but I like the fight we showed today.”
On Duke's different lineup in the third quarter:
“I think it was a tough lineup to rebound against first of all. Second of all I thought we had done a really good job using the clock in the first half. I think we came out of halftime and started shooting a little bit quicker so we weren't in the spots we needed to be in to be able to rebound against a good team. We didn't have much time to prep for this game to be honest with you. We played on Saturday. We had one day. What we talked about was using the clock and not giving Duke any extra opportunities. I thought we did a good job milking the clock, taking late shots, having rebounders in place and we went away from that coming out of half. I think it's just that kids get excited, let's go, it's Duke, we've been waiting all year for this game. Let's go, let me shoot. But those quick shots led to us not being in the proper place for offensive boards and then Duke went on a run and hit a lot of threes at that time.”
On how tough it is to play against Azurá Stevens and Rebecca Greenwell:
“They're pretty remarkable. We haven't seen that type of size. Even in our conference when we see that size, it's probably one player who is 6-4. Our conference is more the undersized post kind of conference. We've definitely never seen anything like it. I did notice they were still on the floor [in the fourth quarter]. I'll chalk up all the moral victories we can get. I laughed actually. That's great that the starters are still there in the fourth quarter. I think our zone could have been a little stronger. I think we gave up a lot of dives down the gut. That's something we need to work on, but again that's why we're here. We've got to test out what we need to work on to compete in the A-10 and that's one of the things we'll get better at.”
On a short bench affecting the team in the second half:
“I think our legs were fine. I think we got deflated when we missed a lot of shots. I don't think fatigue is why we lost that lead. I think we missed shots and got deflated when we missed shots. There is nothing we can do about not having a deep bench. It is what it is and we have to roll that way. I don't think as we move forward that will be a concern.”
On her 2-3 zone in the first half:
“I thought it was pretty good. That was a moral victory for us because we haven't played a lot of zone. But looking at the scout you have to be real coming into these games. We didn't match up that well against them. So you throw caution to the wind and played a lot of 2-3, played a little 1-3-1 zone. One zone we didn't throw out, we were going to, but was perhaps a little too knew so thought that might have been a little too crazy.I thought for new zones they were solid. Hats off to Duke I thought they picked it apart once they got into a rhythm. But those are things we need to go home and work on in terms of giving up the gut of that 2-3 zone.”
Sophomore forward Maggie Mulligan
On being able to rebound well against Duke:
“Honestly I've kind of been molding my game after my teammate Rashida [Tambilla]. She's an amazing rebounder and has this innate ability to just get any rebound that she sees. I'm just trying to play like her.”
On her post defense and off-ball defense:
“Coach [Yolanda Griffith] is our defensive coach mostly and the scouts that we get are really in depth so we know their tendencies. Coach Yo works with me every day on on-ball and off-ball defense.”
Players Mentioned
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