Quotes: Duke 92, Bucknell 49

Duke Coach Joanne McCallie

“It was a very strong team game. It was a very strong defensive game, (and we had) very strong rebounding, particularly on the offensive end. We definitely got better tonight, with a variety of different issues, whether it was offensive rebounds, or assists, or having five players in double figures and trying to create some balance of opportunities on offense. I loved the fight of the last group we had in, challenging (Bucknell) in the last three minutes to not allow a score. People think that's easy, but to not foul and stop them?they had some pretty good shooters. As you recognized, they scored a lot of points with us in the first half, and holding them to 18 in the second half was something that was much more productive for us. We did some very good things as a team, something we can build off of and we'll have to remember what the component parts were as we get back together after the holidays.”

On this week's practice:
“I think the team worked hard in practice and, just to me, were tougher with the ball, whether it's grabbing and ripping offensive rebounds or ripping a pass to get it to a teammate to create the assist. Just being strong with the ball and trying to be very aggressive in the paint, those were the things we were trying to work on.”

On using the full-court press:
“In 16 years of coaching, I've always believed in pressing full court. Being at Duke, with the quality of student-athlete, it elevates it to a new level of opportunity. These women are very talented and they give you a lot of different things in the press. We'll certainly look to press. I do think you have to create offense off of defense and I think you have to be able to change the tempo of a game, it doesn't matter who you're playing or when you're playing. I just believe in that philosophically. These women are physically talented, with quickness; if we can put all that together with intelligence, immediacy, we can do some great things with the press.”

“We try to move the ball quicker than we are doing at times, moving on the pass in particular. (We're) learning to get the ball into a scoring area quickly and run the various things we're trying to do, particularly when we're not being pressed, we want to get the ball up the court at the speed of light. You've got to get it up there. The guards really drive that and push the ball. We've got athletic and powerful posts that can get down the floor, so you're always trying to beat people down the floor, without question.”

On Jasmine Thomas' performance:
“(Jasmine) is a competitor. The credit goes to (Jasmine). She wasn't happy with the way she played last game. She'd be the first to tell you and the first to hold herself accountable. Any time that happens, I think there's a refocusing that goes on. There's nothing magical about what happened with (Jasmine). She's a very good player, and she knows that, but she's got to perform every night. That's the big trick at this level, being a consistent performer night in and night out. You don't want to do a “show up and disappear” type of thing, you want to be able to bring what you can bring every night. (Jasmine) is challenging herself to do that. Her game was very calm, very smart, she moved the ball well, she was making some excellent calls offensively, she was very much in the groove of her team.”

Junior Center Chante Black

On shutting down Bucknell's post options:
“That's one thing that the coach concentrated on in the past games. Our post defense wasn't up to our expectations so we definitely focused on shutting down their post game and coming out making sure that they were limited to rebounds and making sure that our defense was right. I think that we did a very good job.”

On out-rebounding Bucknell:
“That was another focus; no one wants to be out-rebounded, especially when you have great rebounders liker here at Duke. There is no excuse for that so we did focus on that as well; boxing out and going after loose balls.”

Sophomore Forward Joy Cheek

On her performance tonight:
“I just think that I feel a lot more confident than last year, I guess, as maturity as a sophomore and our coaches expect the post to score. Who doesn't want to score? So you just take those opportunities. They have a lot of confidence in us and they believe that when we are aggressive, things start to roll so that's what I am doing - just being aggressive.”

Bucknell Coach Kathy Fedorjaka

On tonight's game:
“I thought our kids competed pretty hard in the first half. They weren't always effective, but they competed hard. In the second half I thought we came out and I really challenged my team after the first five minutes or so in terms of continuing to battle. I thought we came out and backed down a little bit and needed to come back and challenge. Duke is a great team. They have some of the best players in the country. I said to our kids, what we need to take away is to understand their level of excellence. Even when they were up by 35, they play the game a certain way regardless of score and I think that is going to be something we take away for certain.”

On Duke taking away the post:
“That was huge because [Hope] Foster is preseason player of the year in our league and certainly can go up against kids in our league and in other games we see in our schedule and is able to be pretty effective going back to the basket. I think she was really oversized, and not just oversized, oversized with that kind of athleticism. You're facing a kid like Chante Black but not only is big but is mobile and quick at that size. Certainly you're probably over-matched already and then to have that opponent taken away, it's tough to live and die with that perimeter game.”

On keeping her team focused:
“We try to chart four-minute segments of the game; that's how we try to play it. I used a lot of time-outs so we didn't have many to work with in the second half, but to me, in a game like this it's critical to keep them together at stretches and really try to keep them composed. At times I thought we had some success against their pressure when we really attacked it. When you play a team like this, they sense any lack of aggressiveness. I just really tried to keep them composed and focused on little tasks rather than the whole 40 minutes.”

Senior Guard Kesha Champion

On her performance tonight:
“I think Duke[?s Cameron Indoor Stadium] is an amazing gym. There is a lot of history built in these walls and bleachers and the baskets and everything. Taking on the opportunity to play in an arena with such history, I guess I got into a rhythm that way.”

On Duke's press:
“It was a challenge; it was a better press than we've faced all year. It's difficult to prepare for a team like Duke that is very athletic. Preparing was hard but preparing for something different is always hard, but I think we handled it well in spots.”