Quotes: Duke 79, James Madison 65

Head Coach Joanne P. McCallie

Opening Statement:
"It was a great game, a very interesting game given the dynamics out there. I thought our team played very hard and rebounded exceptionally well. It was very physical and I'm really proud of the attack. I thought Joy [Cheek] was outstanding in terms of being so aggressive and attacking the basket and taking her time with things that she can do. I loved our rebounding. Having two people in double figure rebounds with almost a third in Karima [Christmas] and actually almost a fourth with Joy so we had really some people hitting the boards very hard. I thought Jas [Jasmine Thomas] showed great patience and poise. I love to see her assist to turnover ratio in that fashion in terms of the distributing of the ball and the attacking she does. It was a strong team game. We're excited about it. We got a little bit better. We shot a lot of free throws and that's good. Maybe next time we'll put them in."

On Krystal Thomas' play:
"I think she took her time on offense. I thought she was a physical presence on defense and I think she plays with a lot of poise and composure. Krystal's been working hard and 10 rebounds are great and it's very important to us that she rebound and go after the ball. I think now she is a more poised when she gets attacked with the ball. A lot of people clogging her arms and trying to bat it away. I think she's doing a much better job taking her time and pivoting and getting the ball where it needs to go. I thought she was very very strong. The more minutes she gets the better she gets."

On the team's defense tonight:
"I think our team's hustle and our fight along with our full court defense can make up for a lot. It would have been nice to get 10, 12, 14 more points off the free throw line, but reality is sometimes that is the way the game breaks. You have to be able to control the game regardless of the way it breaks and I thought our team really did that even in spite of some incredible rainbow threes by [Dawn Evans]. You never knew when she was going to shoot the ball. That was the most deceptive shooter ever."

On whether this was the team's best effort of the season:
"I think it was a good strong game, probably better in some areas than others. We've had some pretty good games. This game was strong, Ohio State was fairly strong. The most important thing for us is that we got better with some things that we were trying to do. I thought our press got better as we played them. That's not always the case. Sometimes we can fatigue but I thought we got more aggressive, which was really important in the full court. Also, Joy's aggressiveness showed up everywhere, not just offensively when she was calling for the ball. I don't know if you saw when she defended [Dawn Evans]. That was a great play. To me that was very inspirational. That was a message to her teammates, a 'This is how you do it' kind of thing because obviously that would be a natural mismatch by position. So it was interesting to see everyone have their go at that kind of offensive player."

On Kathleen Scheer getting more minutes:
"They went to that 2-3 zone a fair amount tonight and I just have a lot of confidence in her. She definitely works really hard. Playing time is tough because everyone is competitive and you can't play everybody all the time. But she's worked hard. She's a low maintenance student-athlete. You just got to keep coming to her again and she stepped in and did some nice things for us tonight. Shay [Selby] did as well off the bench. That's something that has to keep coming. Our bench has to keep growing. For the bench it's really what they do in practice. They really have to give that effort in practice and I think that Shay has really picked it up and Kathleen has picked it up as well."

On how Duke was able to force so many turnovers:
"I think the pressure by everybody. Whether it was the full court in our presses, whether it's quarter court and our awareness. One thing is trying to tire people out, wear them out a little bit and make them make decisions that they otherwise would not make and that's always a good thing. I know we had 17 turnovers, but I think we forced a good strong 21. That was very good team defense on our part. I think we can pull ours down a little bit, get them down to 12. That would be nice."

On keeping Dawn Evans off the foul line:
"That's important because she can really shoot. I think that's very significant and the fact that she didn't shoot great. She shot better from three than otherwise, but I think making her work really hard and the team did that. I thought she really had to work in the full court. Some of those shots looked pretty easy, but I thought she was working pretty hard."

James Madison Head Coach Kenny Brooks

Opening Statement:
"Obviously disappointed with the loss. We felt like we were playing well. Getting Dawn Evans back ... it gives us a chance with any opportunity. Duke is as advertised. WE knew they were bigger and stronger, we knew they were fast. They willed their way on us, especially in the second half and especially with the press. It really slowed us down. We got a little tentative and made some bad decisions and from there we got tentative. Their mainstay is really crashing the boards and they did a fantastic job. Our game plan was to come in and make them beat us from the outside. Joy Cheek did a great job of opening up very early. She hit some shots. Scheer hadn't made hardly anything all year and she made a three [point basket]. Credit goes to them, their coaching staff did a great job and they deserved to win."

On a case of going against too many Duke "weapons":
"Yeah, yeah I mean too many weapons that played well on the same night. I don't know if they have had a complete game like that, they may have. They stepped up and they did a lot of different things. They hit shots that we were hoping they were going to miss. It seemed like when they did miss, they got the rebound. They are going to cause problems for a lot of teams because of their size and their ability to rebound the basketball."

On if Dawn Evans was 100 percent coming into the game:
"No. She had one and half practices. She practiced on Wednesday. We drove up here yesterday and had an hour practice. We didn't really get up and down the floor. She and I did some individual instruction, but you can't simulate the game speed, especially the way Duke is going to play you with their strength. We really didn't know what to expect tonight. She was almost on a pitch count. I kept asking her, 'how do you feel, how do you feel,' and I think the key to having a successful program is to go out there and recruit kids that are more competitive than you. I'm a competitive guy, but I think she tops my competitiveness. We played her based on how she was telling me how she felt."

On having to go to bench and lack of post players:
"It is a bad experience. It is almost like one of our bugaboos because when we get in foul trouble, we have to play people more minutes than they expect to play. For me, as coach, I don't have a rhythm because we have to play unconventional line-ups. It is silly plays that get them into foul trouble. It takes us out of rhythm. Jalissa Taylor is a rhythm player. She is going to give you six or eight points when she is in rhythm. But she was in foul trouble so she was a non-factor. Nichelle Glover played a little bit out of control, Kanita Shepherd played a little bit out of control. Our freshman, Nikki Newman, was a non-factor because she was making silly fouls. Our post play, which is evident by them not having a field goal, was a non-factor. We had to do it solely from the perimeter. You are not going to beat good teams like Duke strictly from the perimeter."

On having to play against Jasmine Thomas:
"I have seen Jasmine [Thomas] play a lot in AAU, she is from Virginia. Her quickness ... you can watch it on film , but to actually see it and have to deal with it presents a lot of problems before she even does anything. You set up your defense to try to force her one way, and you get so out of position a little bit. It was a tremendous task for our kids, I'm glad they got a chance to play against her. She is one of the best guards in the country. It is her physical prowess, she is a phenomenal athlete. I think our kids are going to gain some valuable experience from being able to play against her in that situation."

Senior, Joy Cheek

On what motivated her tonight:
"I think just being aggressive I had not been shooting well the past couple of games so I wanted to come out tonight and capitalize. I think I owe that to my team for passing me the ball. I just wanted to be aggressive. Defensively I just didn't want whom ever I was guarding to score. I always think about that."

Junior, Jasmine Thomas

On guarding Dawn Evans:
"When any of us find ourselves on her (Dawn Evans) we knew we had to be ready. You had to be ready for the drive and ready for the shot. Usually on defense you kind of know that this player my drive more than they shoot, or this player my shoot more than they drive. She did everything and you always had to be on your toes."

JMU junior guard, Dawn Evans

On getting healthy and playing after being out:
"I just got back. I was out about six days. I was out of shape, so I was trying to hurry to catch up and workout with Coach Brooks right before this game. I am just now getting back on the floor."

On being tired in the second half but getting a second wind:
"That is just me. It is a competitive thing that kicks in. I just try to push through to win the game... so we can get that win. That is it [adrenaline], to push me throughout the whole game. I started off pretty tired, but I just wanted to win."

On how to attack a defense:
"I try to read my defense and take what they give me. I try to work on my outside game as well on my inside game so therefore I can be a versatile player so people can't play me a certain way. That makes me unpredictable, to be able to score from the inside and outside and not having to rely on either."

On being disappointed in not being able to get to the foul line more:
"I was disappointed. I try to get to the free throw line at least three times a game. I wasn't able to get those attempts this game."

On playing against Jasmine Thomas:
"Jasmine Thomas is a great player. She is very versatile ... she can also shoot from the outside and get to the basket. She is very quick. It is pretty tough guarding her, but I think we did pretty well. She is a great athlete ... she has a very quick first step. We did our best to try to contain her and contain the shots that she can usually get off."