Quotes: Duke 88, Virginia 65

Head Coach Gail Goestenkors

Opening Statement:
“I'm happy to come away with a win. We had, I thought, some really good moments. It wasn't a great game overall for us. I thought we had some lulls in our intensity at several points during the game, whether with turnovers ? unnecessary turnovers, unforced turnovers ? or with our fouling. But I thought we also put together some really nice runs as well. I'm proud of the job we did on the boards after the last game. That was only the second time we had been outrebounded, so we wanted to make sure we were doing a much better job on the boards, and we did tonight so that was good. I thought we got good games, especially from our post players. We knew we had the size advantage and I thought our posts all did a nice job scoring and really looking for each other when they were doubled as well.”

On other players stepping up when Monique Currie had an off night:
“I think that's the mark of a great team, when you don't need to rely on one player, and we've never really had to rely on Monique. We usually can count on her for her consistency. Tonight, she had one of those nights that every player has and I think that's a tribute to the depth of our team and the strength of our team, is that we always have other players that can step forward.”

On Virginia cutting Duke's lead to six to open the second half:
“We just weren't playing with the effort, the intensity, the desire, the passion that I think we're known for and that we've come to expect from our basketball team.”

On establishing a post presence early:
“Early in the game we definitely wanted to look inside and attack. The sets that we were running offensively were all designed to really get the ball into our post players because we knew we had the size advantage so we wanted to establish ourselves early inside. And then really, throughout most of the game, we felt like we had really good position inside and they were having a tough time defending us so we continued to attack on the inside.”

On the play of Mistie Williams:
“She did a great job. She's always one of our hardest workers, if not our hardest worker, everyday in practice and in games. We rely on her and count on her to play at a certain level, and I thought when the team wasn't playing particularly hard, I thought she really helped to rally us and get after it on both ends of the floor ? attack on offense and do a good job on defense as well.”

On Sharnee Zoll's performance:
“I called her Zollie [on the USA National Team] and I love her. She's a great leader. She's a great player. But she wasn't a great shooter this summer and I had to tease her because she's the only player on the whole team I could beat in P-I-G. So if I can beat you in P-I-G, you really shouldn't be a very good shooter because I'm not a good shooter. But she came out and really lit it up tonight. She takes what the defense gives her and we were going underneath screens on the ball because she's such a good penetrator and she knocked down some threes, and then we went over the top and she drove to the basket. She's just such a smart player. I told her this summer that she needed to go into coaching when she's done playing because she is really a coach on the floor and she really thinks the game through. So I think one day she'll be an excellent coach but for right now she's an excellent player.”

Duke Senior Mistie Williams

On the student attendance since the UNC game:
“I was really happy and surprised that a lot of the students kept coming once more. We usually have a pretty good crowd, but just having them there again is really neat for us. You just don't have that kind of consistency there. We're really happy with the crowds that we do get. Sometimes you beat off the crowds, sometimes you just have to find it, but tonight I think it was just more of bringing this team together because we know there are only four games left. We're just really improving as much as we can right before the tournament.”

On striving to be ranked No. 1 again:
“It's always nice on being number one. That's something we're constantly striving for, to be number one at the end of the season. That's really all that matters. We're just really focused on conference play right now, since this conference is so wonderful and talented.”

On second-half timeout:
“Virginia is a wonderful team. They take each team the distance. They took Maryland to six twice when Maryland was up 20. They're just that type of team. Coach told us at halftime that is was going to happen if we didn't play with the type of intensity and passion that we had promised each other we were going to play with. So it was basically right then. We had to get yelled at, but if that's what it takes, that's what needs to happen.”

On tying her season high and looking to score more:
“I think its being aggressive. I think in the beginning of the season I wasn't looking to take my shots, or just be as aggressive with my body. I want to be more aggressive and hope the rest of the team takes that intensity over with them. It's not necessarily scoring, I've actually focused on rebounding more. If it comes, it comes, if it doesn't I'll always look to my teammates to help them with other things.”

Sophomore Chante Black

On having confidence when in the starting lineup:
“Yes, you do have confidence. It's a great opportunity to go out there, it's a privilege to start. But either way I think that the last couple of games I've been doing well. My confidence has boosted. Even if I was coming off the bench, I would still be playing with confidence.”

On team intensity:
“It's just something we really, really need to work on as a team. You can't always have maybe two or three people always playing with the same intensity, it's really got to come from the whole team. It's something we're constantly working on that needs to happen soon.”

Freshman Abby Waner

On second-half timeout:
“We had fouled just about every other possession before that, so Coach G just kind of got after us with that. It was just to get us to focus and stop fouling, to get the ball going back our direction.”

On being comfortable making plays:
“Everybody has to respect every aspect of our team. We can score off the drive from the screen so they have to step out and hedge, which then leaves an open lane down to our post. Or if we kick it inside most teams have to double, which then leaves open shooters. Really we have so many strengths that it's hard to compensate on defense for that.”

Abby Waner on being concerned for Monique:
“We've been emphasizing all year our depth. We're just able to pull each other through. The whole team was trying to help Monique through the game, whether it's Monique or Mistie or Emily or whoever, I think that's just the way our team is. Anybody can step up; we have multiple players step up every day. I'm not worried about Monique at all.”

Virginia Head Coach Debbie Ryan

On being within six and then falling more behind:
“I think it was like 13:06 or something, and they called timeout ? we're down six. We come out of the timeout, and it immediately goes to 10, unfortunately, because we don't have a very good defensive possession. I can't remember exactly what happened at that time. I just remember it sitting at 10 for a long time.

“Duke is a really, really explosive team. I thought we did a pretty good job defensively on (Monique) Currie tonight, but I just felt like for the most part we weren't on the boards with them, and the problem was that we were not hitting shots, and they were. Again, even with the rebounding differential, we still get more shots than the other team gets. At some point, if we can improve that part of the game, we're in pretty good shape. We just aren't shooting the ball well enough to beat a team like Duke right now. If you shoot 39.2 percent, and they're shooting 57 percent, you're in a lot of trouble. Of course, I thought in the second half, we just totally defensively we were not getting the job done, and they did a great job of taking advantage of what we were doing.”

On Duke's inside players stepping up:
“Mistie Williams played really well tonight. I think our post game tonight defensively was not doing a very good job at all. We're usually better than we were tonight, and we just, for whatever reason, did not do the things that we needed to do to make it more difficult. Mistie just was picking up everything that came off the boards and putting it back. She did a great job. She had four offensive rebounds, and she was just really all over the place tonight.

“If you can do as good a job as we did on Currie, who has two points and four rebounds in 25 minutes ? we also forced her into five turnovers; some of them were unforced, but it's just a night where it should have been a closer game, and we should have done a better job. We had four people in double figures. We just didn't get much else. We had four people come to play tonight. We didn't get much else.”

Virginia sophomore Sharnee Zoll

On comeback at beginning of first half:
“We just took it to them. We kept attacking. We noticed that in the first half when we attacked them. We took short jumpers. We know they're shot blockers, so we tried not to go all the way in, and we took short jumpers and took advantage of our athleticism a little bit. We got in there and hit some shots.”

On shooting:
“I'm just trying to do whatever it takes to win, especially playing Coach G. She knows my game pretty well after coaching me this summer. I know that Lindsey Harding is a great defender. She's going to be playing me for the pass like I know a lot of people are, so I knew I had to take a couple of shots early. We weren't hitting, so I was just trying to do whatever I could to get the win. If that means shooting, then I'm going to shoot, or try to anyway.”