Upcoming Event: Women's Basketball versus Countdown to Craziness on October 3, 2025 at 7 p.m.
/
7 p.m.
Women's Basketball
vs Countdown to Craziness
Quotes: Duke 78, Virginia 70
2/24/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Duke Coach Joanne P. McCallie
Opening Statement:
“It was a great, very exciting game. A lot of very good things occurred on the floor for us. I loved our poise on offense and defense, and even when adversity struck, which it did several times. Virginia is a very, very good basketball team. They do a very good job. It was a wonderful tribute today to Emily [Waner] and Wanisha [Smith] as seniors. I loved how hard the team played. I thought the team played with a lot of heart and hustle, and I really think that reflected the values that both Em[ily] and Wanisha have. I think it was just a great day for Duke Women's Basketball. I think we got better as a team. I think we picked it up and got better, and it really had a flavor of a tournament environment. That kind of game, given the physical nature of it, given the plays that needed to be made on offense and defense. So that's good for us. We need to continue with great tournament experience, so to speak, and I think that game really reflected that.”
On Wanisha Smith and Chante Black's roles in overcoming the nine point deficit in the second half:
“I think that for the game plan, we wanted to attack off the dribble generally just because that was a good way to go at Virginia although they are a very good team. The players just stepped up. Chante and Nish [Smith] did what they are capable of doing. Nish going to the foul line I believe it was twelve times is indicative of what Nish can do every single game. She took it upon herself. She was attacking. She created. Obviously we looked to get the ball inside to our post players, and we looked to get it out to Abby [Waner], to Nish, to Jas[mine Thomas], and to our perimeter people. But they both, to me, were in attack mode. It was very significant. I think it was very dominant. And, again, I would just love for Nish to be going to the line twelve times a game. That's enormous for us. That's huge.”
On the difference in the team as a whole when Wanisha Smith plays so well:
“I think we're very different. It's just this other line of attack that needs to occur. The “three” players can do so much in a basketball game, and Nish is probably a true “three” guard. When she's in attack mode like that it takes pressure off of every other position. My dream for her is for her free throw attempts to continue and for her to combine the rebounding. Then you're talking about an awesome display of attack that you need. You just simply need to balance it out. You don't want people doubling down your post, and you don't want people denying your shooters and things of that nature. I think Nish is just at the tip of the iceberg of what she can do, and I thought she made a great statement today about her strengths.”
On Jasmine Thomas' aggressive play today:
“Jas[mine Thomas] has just been playing so hard. She's just been going hard on defense and attacking. Every game we've played she gets better. And sometimes people draw attention to it more if she scores points or that type of thing. But, I just thought Jas had a presence about her on both ends of the floor. She had a poise, maturity about her. It was really so important to our team to have that. The plays that she made were huge. Those were game winners. Those steals were incredible; those lay-ups were incredible and the speed that she moves. And again, I just think that Jas is getting better and better. She played a lot of minutes. To log 30 minutes in that kind of game is pretty phenomenal. And I thought she carried herself pretty well and made an argument about, ?Well, I can do that. I can play 30 minutes.' Because that's a lot of minutes.”
On the moving around of players on the perimeter:
“It depends on the game. Just moving around in general can be good. Without question today, we were liking Jas[mine Thomas] at the ?one' and Abby [Waner] at the ?two,' and trying to bring Abby off some screens and things like that. I just think you have to adaptable. I think games are different, and this was a different kind of game. [It was a] very athletic and a very fast game today. It was just absolutely going all the time.”
On Chante Black's “and-one's” in the second half:
“I think it makes a statement. I think ?and-one's' are powerful. It's that follow-up. It's that ?you're going to foul me, but I'm still going to finish' mentality. I think it does send a message. Chante's eight rebounds send a message. Being at the free throw line nine times for her sends another message. And, finishing those ?and-one's' as well.”
On defense breakdowns during the game:
“Well, we had some defensive breakdowns. I thought they hit a couple of nice shots. I don't think they were awful breakdowns. I thought they played hard. I thought that they made some tough shots. I can think of number 33 [Aisha Mohammed] on the interior and some of the things that she did, and also [Monica] Wright hit a bit three for them. I think that you have to give them credit. Those are two very, very good teams. And that's what I mean about a tournament atmosphere. When you get to any tournament, ACC or NCAA, they're all good. All the teams are really, really good. It doesn't matter who you play. That's what it kind of felt like to me. It was more of a handling of some good plays that they made, keeping our defensive poise, and translating it to offensive poise. I think the team did that in an outstanding way.”
On the match-up between Chante Black and Virginia's Aisha Mohammed:
“I just think they're two extraordinary players. I just love when Chante plays her game. There's a battle going on in those match-ups and things of that nature. But, I love the way Chante can go inside and out as a great shooting post, a very agile, quick post. I think that I'm really excited the direction of Chante's game there. And as for [Aisha] Mohammed, she just plays hard, goes to her left, and knows what she does well. And give her credit, she's relentless on the boards, and she showed that with her rebounds.”
On Joy Cheek and Carrem Gay working in the game together today:
“We did that against Virginia Tech as well. We've done that in practice. You just try and get different looks. Both Joy and Carrem are very athletic as you know. And Carrem does a great job defending on the perimeter. We had a 12-2 run against Virginia Tech with our ?bigs' in, with our ?three.' It's something we can do. It's something we look to do. There's always a positive outcome: more rebounds, deflections, a quick steal, a put-back, things like that.”
Senior Guard Wanisha Smith:
On channeling the emotion of playing in her last game in Cameron:
“I just had to go out there and play as hard as I could. I did notice when we were getting a lot of foul calls to attack the basket. I felt like that was one of the things that I needed to do to get to the line and knock down some free throws.”
On what was going through her mind during the 11-0 run in the second half:
“It was defense. We knew that we had to get stops and we got the stops at the right times. We would score and then get a stop. Defense was the huge key in the second half and we handled it pretty well.”
On the key factor that allowed her to attack the basket:
“I think it was defense and learning from our previous games to have the fight to figure out a way when we're down in the second half to get a lead and keep the lead. Just learning from previous games has helped us a lot.”
On the different starting line-ups that Duke has used throughout conference play:
“I don't think that it's been a factor at all. In practice, we do a good job of switching up the line-ups so we go into the game knowing what to expect. It's not a factor at all.”
Junior Forward Chante Black:
On the physical battle with Aisha Mohammad:
“She is a very physical player, she did a great job on the boards and on the offensive end. Coach was telling me to try and play her early to limit her touches, but she was able to get some shots off and get some baskets. She's a great physical player.”
On the confidence she gained from the numerous ?and one' plays:
“I was just going with the flow of the game. I was trying to play into my comfort zone and that is by being mobile. Just moving around and getting off shots, so I tried to stay within that and shots were falling for me today.”
Virginia Coach Debbie Ryan
Opening Statement
“I thought we came with our guns loaded today. We played a very good game strategically up until the 3:08 mark, and then the poise factor kind of bit us in the butt, and unfortunately that was the difference in the game. We matched Chante Black with Aisha Mohammed. Both players had very good games, and it really felt like Wanisha Smith was the difference for them in a lot of ways and also some of the layups by Jasmine Thomas. A few times, I just though we played very uncharacteristically toward the end of the game, we didn't execute well, and that's really not like us. But I credit Duke for that. They did a great job the last three minutes of getting us out of our offense and being physical with us, and that was really the difference.”
On performance before halftime:
“I told the team that just a couple minutes ago, you know, we didn't play our best game. We were in this game right till the end, so I felt like we did not play our best game the first half. We played well enough to be within 1. We came out in the second half, I think our biggest lead was 8, in our backcourt, I felt like we really had a good rhythm going and were getting to the cup pretty easily, and that was really the difference in the game. Our finishing in the second half was much better than it was in the first half.”
On finishing:
“You want to get a stop and a score, stop and a score, we were doing a pretty good job of that through the body of that segment. It was a little early, but they're a very good team and I thought we turned the ball over. We had some uncharacteristic things happen. You step in the lane on a free throw and you don't get to take two free throws. Just some strange things happened. We had (Abby) Waner down the entire game, and we don't make a switch out, and then stuff that happened was not very good on our part. We let her get away for one shot, basically, and that was a killer for us. It was a dagger.
On fatigue:
“No, I really don't think fatigue was a factor. I asked them during every time out. I use time outs to rest them a little, but I ask them every single time, and everybody kept saying “No,” so I didn't feel like that was a factor.”
On coming very close to beating the top three ACC teams, and the ACC tournament:
“We've already taken a lot from this. We played two of those games on the road, and we've been close in all of them. We're really not far away, and we know that. It's just so frustrating for us right now because today we needed to close the door, and we didn't do it. We don't have to play flawlessly to finish a game like this, but the distance between us and the top three teams in this conference right now is razor thin. Our team knows that. It's going to be a neutral floor we play on, and I'm really looking forward to the fact that we have a chance to step up and really make a showing in the ACC tournament.”
On factors to improve:
“Well we've got to have poise in the last four minutes of the game. That's all it is. It's a certain amount of poise. It's a certain amount of belief. It's a certain amount of execution, that's all it is. It's just execution.”
On bouncing back after loss:
“Well, we're pretty good at that. That's something we've been very good with all year long. I think the frustration of it is over today, we move on, we start thinking about Boston College. We can't dwell on what happened in this game. This game was a very, very physical game, and we haven't played a physical game like this since Hawaii, so this was probably one of the most physical games we played all year, even more physical than the Carolina game.”
On Paulisha Kellum's performance:
“She just knows. She had great instinct for the basket. She knows when she can get by someone. Their top defenders are on Sharnee (Zoll) and Monica (Wright), so now Paulisha is left with their third defender and she knows she can just kind of have her way. It's tough to put three good defenders out there on the perimeter.”
On Wanisha Smith's performance:
“She was just more aggressive today. She did a great job of picking her spots and was very, very aggressive. I've always had a great deal of respect for Wanisha; I recruited her. I think she's a very unheralded player at Duke and she has been all four years. She had some really great baskets today and that gave her some good leadership on the court, which is something that they need. They were down and we were about to throw the punch, and she kept us from doing that.”
On Aisha Mohammed's performance:
I think she did a great job of handling all the people they threw at her. I think the third foul was the one where she tried to block a shot where I just told her to let them score, we'd make it up on the other end. She's gotten real good at playing in foul trouble.
On Sharnee Zoll's performance:
“Sharnee gives us everything she has, whether it be physical, emotional, or spiritual. She gives us everything she has every minute she's on the court. This was not maybe one of her best floor games, but she never wavered on the bench or during time outs. She led her team the whole way. I think sometimes people don't realize how much is put on her with this team. She's trying to carry this team from where it was to where it is now, and that's a long way that she's put us on her back. I thought she and Monica (Wright) both did not have their best games. Monica had 23 points, but this was not one of her best games. She's much better than she was today.”
Junior Center Aisha Mohammed
On today's game:
“We though we were going to beat this team today because we had full confidence, but as Coach said, we cannot slow the pace down. I think we did a good job, and as Coach said, we have other games to face, so we're going to set this aside.”
Players Mentioned
C
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballWomen's Basketball Season Ticket Holder Tailgate
Sunday, September 07
Duke WBB: Kara Lawson - 13 Gold Medals. One Standard
Thursday, August 14
Duke WBB Postgame: NCAA Tournament Elite Eight
Sunday, March 30
Duke WBB Postgame: NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen
Friday, March 28
