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1 p.m.
Women's Basketball
vs Holy Cross
Quotes: Duke 75, Virginia Tech 65
1/29/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Gail Goestenkors
On Virginia Tech's effort:
“I just give Virginia Tech a lot of credit. I thought they did a great job. They handled our pressure and hit their open shots, and played with a lot of confidence, a lot of poise. I thought they did a great job.”
On what Duke was lacking tonight:
“We were lacking a lot of energy, a lot of emotion, focus, and discipline. In all aspects of the game, I think we lacked discipline and emotion. There was no energy out there.”
On why Duke lacked energy:
“I really don't know why. We will talk about it some more in the next practice to find out why. Because it wasn't just one person it was most of the team. So you feel like there's some common denominator. I don't feel like there are any excuses. There are only eight games left before this game in the regular season, four home games. There's no excuse not to be ready to play.”
On the attitude in the locker room:
“I wasn't yelling. I'm saving it for practice.”
On how Coach felt about the game:
“I'm extremely disappointed. I'm proud of how this team has played throughout the year. I think we've played with a chip on our shoulder. I think we've had the attack mindset. Tonight, I didn't feel that way at all. I felt like we were extremely passive. We were not focused; we were not disciplined. I just have higher expectations for this team then what we displayed tonight.”
On Duke's problems tonight:
“We were not on the same page tonight. We changed our defenses trying to find something that would work well for us. But you can't have three or four people on the same page and then one person that is not doing the right thing, and that happened quite often tonight. On penetration, we talked about all through practice yesterday and today that we needed to get our rotations because they love to penetrate, and they do a good job of finding the open person. Our rotations just weren't there. A lot of times we were trying to trap and our rotations just weren't there. For our defense to be good we all need to be on the same page and tonight we weren't.”
On energy coming off the bench:
“I felt like Joy [Cheek] and Bridgette [Mitchell] both had the best energy out of anybody on the team. They gave us a little spark off the bench. It shouldn't be your freshmen that have the most energy, but tonight I thought they did. I thought they gave us some good minutes.”
“I thought Joy was attacking with the ball. She had two really nice drives to the basket. She doesn't have as much size, but she can take the ball. She's strong with the ball. She showed us some energy. We got some transition buckets at that point as well which always helps us. We went on a nice run and I expected us to continue that run in the second half unfortunately it didn't happen.”
Lindsey Harding
On the lack of effort tonight:
“It was something I didn't think about because I have to get my team up I have got to get my team going; I have to get myself going. I want to set the tone on both ends of the floor. I put that on myself for not getting my team going.”
On the possible distraction of assists leader acknowledgement:
“No, I was not distracted at all. It was just the energy level, like she said; I just needed to bring it.”
Alison Bales
On the run at the end of the first half:
“I think we just started playing like we should have been the whole game. We started playing better to our strengths, sharing the ball a little better, and pushing it in transition.”
On a different approach to playing Nare Diawara after struggling last game:
“Last time I fell away on a lot of my shots in that game and this time I was trying ot make sure I was going towards the basket”
Virginia Tech Head Coach Beth Dunkenburger
Opening Statement:
“I think our team has grown a lot since the first time we played Duke. Our game plan was to try to get back in transition and make them run a halfcourt offense, and I thought we did that very well. Duke played an excellent defensive game. They continued to mix defenses up and make us think, but I'm very proud of our effort and how well we hung in. We were playing without one of our top post players tonight, and that depth in the post hurt us a little bit down the stretch. I thought we got tired and got hurt on the boards there a little bit, but overall I'm very proud with their effort and how hard we played tonight.”
On Duke's press:
“They were aggressive with their fullcourt press and we were struggling to break it. It's a very aggressive press and if you can break it, you can get some lay-ups out of it. We just were struggling to get that ball down the court. Again, it's great intensity on the defensive end. They're big, strong, fast.”
On the defensive play of Alison Bales:
“Ali[son] Bales is a tremendous shotblocker, and she gives their guards great freedom to get out and overplay passing lanes. If you can hang onto it on the wing, you can get by your first line because they do overplay, but then you've got to play a good, smart two-man game because it's two on one with Ali[son] Bales as the defender. So if you go up and shoot it, there's a chance that she's going to block it back. Somebody's got to be ready to step to and score.”
Senior forward Britney Anderson
On Virginia Tech's confidence:
“Confidence makes all the difference in the world. When we played Duke [earlier in the season], I know I was nervous, and I'm a senior. I just felt like I wasn't bringing anything to the team, so I made a point and told myself before the game [tonight] that I was going to go out here and play with confidence and give everyone else confidence.”
On what this game means for Virginia Tech's season:
“We have six freshmen and I think it made them believe. You might not be ranked, and we're not ranked. We lost some games we shouldn't have lost, but don't give up on your season. You can't just give up on your season. I think this game made us see that we can go pretty far. We played the number one team in the country to a 10-point game and we were up at one point. [There were] just some mistakes that hurt us, but I think that'll help us out a lot.”
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