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Women's Basketball
vs Countdown to Craziness
Quotes: Duke 99, Colorado State 52
12/22/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Gail Goestenkors
Opening Comment
“Overall we are pleased with the win. I think we are all excited to go into Christmas break. I thought Colorado State came in ready to play. It took us a while to adjust defensively. I think once that eight-minute mark hit, when we called the timeout, we really decided to get after them and put more pressure on them. That really changed the game because I thought they struggled a little bit to handle our pressure once we upped our intensity. In the second half, we went more to a zone and pulled back a little bit. They did a good job of making some reads and scored over 30 points in the second half and shot a good percentage. We have to do a better job in our zones. There are a lot of things we can work on and will work on to get better. I am pleased with our overall effort.
On stretch of forcing seven turnovers in eight possessions in first half
“It was about the eight-minute mark. Once we became a lot more aggressive and intense that is ideally what we want to have happen. We want to cause some turnovers because that gets our offense going.”
On improvement in ball handling and defense
“I thought we did a better job. Especially tonight I thought we still had some errant passes, but finishing with 11 turnovers is better for us. We were averaging about 18 turnovers a game so I thought we did a much better job taking care of the basketball.”
On what Duke did offensively
“We were just attacking more. Initially we were settling for the three-point shot, which we were hitting, but then we really started to penetrate the gaps of their zone. I think that was good for us. It got us some wide open shots.”
Freshman Abby Waner
On tonight's game
“It is never really the points that are an issue. I try to look at every game the same regardless of what happened in the last game. It is fun to play against people you know. Jen Warden is a great coach and I have known her for a while as well as a couple of the players and assistant coaches, so it made it fun to be playing against people I know. I still try to approach every game the same way.”
On shooting performance
“My teammates did a good job of finding me when I was open on the court. We worked a lot on patience and making a couple more passes on each play, so I think that opens things up once we get the defense moving.”
On whether Colorado State was among her top five schools during recruiting
“They were not. Earlier when I was in middle school and high school I looked at CSU a lot. I took some visits up there. It is a very pretty campus and a great program, but I never really looked at them as much as I did Colorado.”
Sophomore Wanisha Smith
On changes made in the second half
“Whatever in the first half that we aren't doing as well in, we try to come out with more focus and intensity. I don't think we pull back any. If anything we are getting more aggressive and trying to do the things we didn't do in the first half.”
On large margins of victory
“Depending on how well we did the things we set out to do early in the game, we can start from that. As far as blowing teams out, it doesn't look bad on us. We are just scoring points. We are taking what they give us. Our defense was really aggressive, and we got after it. We got a lot of tips.”
Colorado State Head Coach Jen Warden
Opening Statement
“I felt like we came out very strong and very confident. We were executing a strong defensive game plan (early in the game). Duke is obviously a very good team with tremendous mental toughness and they had an opportunity to make some momentum plays which are critical to them to get their blood running. I think they started filling their oats down the stretch.”
On Duke's offense
“We gave them some opportunities to score on easy baskets in transition from our own mistakes but they had to earn some pretty tough shots in the zone. We knew what we wanted to give them and they took what we wanted to give them. When you've got Abby Waner going 5-for-8 and Lindsey Harding going 2-for-2 from behind the three and Duke shoots 57% from behind the three against a team that is going to try and slow it down a little bit and play some zone, that's going to start to make a dent pretty quickly. Some of it I think we contributed it to with some mistakes but I think they earned it like Duke should.”
On Duke freshman Abby Waner
“Abby has always been something special. The physical part of her game is so much better than it was since I last saw her in high school. She's very physical defending the ball and very physical getting on loose balls. She's very strong and that's something I think that Duke has done a great job in developing in her is that mental toughness attitude and her physical play. She could always shoot, she could always handle (the ball), she's always been a chemistry player but I'm really impressed with how physical she is right now in her game.”
Players Mentioned
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