Upcoming Event: Women's Basketball versus Holy Cross on November 9, 2025 at 1 p.m.
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1 p.m.
Women's Basketball
vs Holy Cross
Quotes: Duke 100, Alaska Anchorage 32
11/8/2009 4:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Junior, Jasmine Thomas
On the team's progress over the three exhibition games
"I just like to see us play off of each other. In practice you don't always get to play with different people, like, I don't get to run the 2 that much in practice. But to come into the game and get put in with a different group of people, I think that's going to pay off for us in the long run having us be able to play with different combinations."
Junior, Karima Christmas
On the team's progress over the three exhibition games
"I think just being able to be flexible and play any position that our coaches tell us to go out there and play."
On the importance of refining her three-point shooting
"I didn't really think about it to much it was just, you know, I felt good out there and I just took the shots."
Duke Head Coach Joanne P. McCallie
Opening Statement:
"I liked a lot of things we did, second half in particular in terms of intensity and position defense, which were better. Offensively I liked that fact that we were attacking all the time. It was a pretty good 40 minutes; we worked on a lot of different defenses and combinations, which was great. Early on I thought it was great to see a shooter come out like #14 [Tamar Gruwell] did, and right away grab your attention and increase the intensity. I thought it was good for us, we got some bad calls, but we never think it's a good call, and some things weren't particularly going our way for a segment there early on. I think reaction is important, reaction and character, and I just thought we had good character. After that we just settled down and focused on what we were doing. We're looking forward to the next one."
On Duke's performance level after Alaska the first half:
"I think that they are just a feisty good team and you can tell why they're ranked in their discipline. I think that initially we just weren't as sharp on stances as we wanted to be. And they were doing a nice job on that defense, a match-up, man-zone kind of thing, really trying to protect the paint. So I liked our IQ intelligence throughout the game and adjusting to that, and getting to the free throw line 28 times, really being aggressive and getting in there. That was important to us."
On how the game was scheduled:
"Alaska called us. They're great people, they called us and asked to come; they've never visited. Alaska to Cameron, that's a long way. Exhibitions can be a lot of different things, but I love to play against teams that are really good at their level because they know what to do and they execute, they're very well coached, so I thought that was good."
On freshman Alexis Rogers' improvement:
"I think she's been working hard and trying to get better everyday, adjusting as a first-year to what's going on out there. She's an interesting person to coach, she's pretty flexible. She did some things today that she's never done in practice. Meaning I put her in some positions today that she's never played before. I think she's a very durable, versatile player, and she's definitely getting better."
On the number of scorers on Duke's team:
"I think it's important. We have a lot of attacking people, and we need to attack. Timing is important, and not everyone can attack at the same time. That's how we're learning from each other, how to move that ball and then bring the best out in everybody. In the second half we really did that, we came out aggressively."
On scoring percentage:
"I think if we move the ball and we attack, I honestly don't pay a lot of attention to percentages, because it's all about timing to me. I'm pushing the timing, to hit people when they're open, find people when they're ready, create together, play off each other. I think we've got some excellent shooters on this team. But you have to put yourself in the right position too. You can't rush; you have to let things come to you. I think Karima [Christmas] did a great job in that, letting the game come to her a little bit, and finding her spots."
On going into games with a set number of field goals and three-pointers in mind:
"No. That would be a disaster. Rims in our eyes and springs in our arms, the ball would be flying. We focus on defense and rebounding and execution, spacing, timing. How good can we be tonight? That's really the question. We're better today then we were last time, there's no doubt about that. There are various things I can look at and see that. But tomorrow's another day, we've got to get up and be better, and try to do that each day. It doesn't matter how you shake it. Every game plays differently. The best thing players can do is recognize that every game is different, and if you're open to what's happening on that floor, you have to manage failure, success and other things, because every game is different. So if I didn't play well today, I have to find out why and push myself, but everyday is a new day. I think we're just understanding, and you definitely have to be that kind of team. You have to attack."
On the status of the injured players:
"Keturah [Jackson] is going to be cleared here. She's been practicing; she just hasn't been cleared for competition mode. She's been pretty good in practice, but she wasn't cleared for the actual hit of competition. We've held her back and she's going to be cleared so we're excited about that for her. Shay [Shelby] is okay. She's rusty a little bit coming back from mononucleosis and her knee, but we're looking good and I think everyone's taken steps to getting better. And everyone has to get past soreness, game soreness, how you play. Getting into season mode."
On dominating down low in terms of rebounding against bigger teams:
"You've got to get there and find out. But we better dominate a little more. We didn't reach our goals of what we wanted to do rebounding wise. But every game is different and rebounding is going to be very important to us. But we can't make any predictions about it; we've just got to do it."
Alaska-Anchorage Head Coach Tim MoserOn what Anchorage wanted to get out of the game:
"You know, the one thing you try to get out of this is to see the best. The pressure they put on us is something we won't see again. There are some teams at our level that do it with length and athleticism, so it's something we wanted to see. In truth there are three things that we believe in our program: we want to get block outs, we want to take care of the ball, and we want to stop people in transition. None of those things we did tonight, and a lot of that has to do with how talented and overwhelming [Duke's players] are."
On the length of the trip:
"We scrimmaged at the Naval Academy on Thursday. So we got down here on Tuesday and we leave tomorrow."
On the benefit of the trip:
"It's great because we are in Anchorage we have to be a little tougher because we have to do some road trips. Everyone in our league has to do it once, but we have to do it six times, so we've got to get used to that. We try to do a trip this far every year. We've got to get road-ready."
On competing with Duke:
"You know, we wanted to just make sure that we competed. We are a young team and I think sometimes young teams play harder when things go well. Things went bad tonight and we dropped our concentration and some of the things we needed to do like block outs and some of the things we can control every night. The ball goes in a few times and we start playing better."
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