Upcoming Event: Women's Basketball versus South Dakota State on December 18, 2025 at 7 p.m.
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7 p.m.
Women's Basketball
vs South Dakota State
Quotes: Duke 95, UMass Lowell 48
12/19/2014 9:08:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Joanne P. McCallie
Opening Statement
“It was just a good game for us to grow and learn and improve. I thought we improved in some areas. We had strong rebounding, reduced turnovers and a lot of balanced scoring and a lot of good attack stuff out there. I also want to compliment Shannon Samuels. Anyone to get 26 against us, that's not what we like. We don't like people to do that and she obviously played a great game here. That's a motivator for us for the next game I think. Back to us, just a good team situation with points in the paint and everyone playing together and trying to get a little bit better. We're excited to go back at it on Sunday.”
On what she was happy with in the game and disappointment of not reaching 100:
“I guess the fans might be. Different things happened. Like Mercedes Riggs getting five assists and getting the feel of what that's like. That's important to us. Sierra's [Calhoun] leadership in getting to the basket, I loved to see that. She took 10 free throw attempts and that's something I'd like to see Sierra do every game, getting the feel of what that's like, go to the basket, get 10 free throw attempts. That was great. Azurá [Stevens] being solid with her rebounding again in getting a double double. All these little things matter. The way the rebounding broke out…we had so many different rebounders with 7, 7, 6, 6. From our perspective and our world that's the kind of stuff we're looking for. We could have defended better we feel. I know they had 48 points but we feel they should have held them to less than that. We're always challenging ourselves on defense and rebounding, but it was a good team game and there were a lot of good things about it.”
On Lyneé Belton's injury:
“In the last 18 seconds of a game in which she scored 12 points and that happens? I can't even begin to understand that. She played a fantastic game against Oklahoma. She was coming on very very strong for our team and 18 seconds left in the game she bangs knees with an Oklahoma player. I've seen the replay and it just makes me really really mad. It makes me really mad. It adds fuel to the fire. It makes me mad. She'll handle it well and she'll learn from it herself, but it just doesn't seem right.”
Duke freshman Azurá Stevens
On how being in the starting lineup the past two games is different:
“It's really important to come out and have that energy because coming off the bench is different than starting. Coming off the bench you're so fired up, but sometimes you can lose that when you start so it's just important for me to come out and help my team any way I can right from the jump and keep it going steadily throughout the game.”
Duke freshman Sierra Calhoun
On what was working well for her:
“I feel like my teammates got me the ball. I was also being a little bit more aggressive I feel in getting to the rim.”
UMass Lowell Head Coach Jenerrie Harris:
“I thought tonight was a good chance for our program and our team to have another chance to see what the highest level of women's basketball is like at the collegiate level. We started the season off with Notre Dame and the two teams (Duke and Notre Dame) just posed different problems for our team. Obviously Notre Dame was tall and extremely quick, but Duke was definitely another level of tall. I was very proud of our effort in the second half. I thought we gave great effort in the last 20 minutes and that's definitely something for us to build off of.”
On playing Duke to prepare for the America East schedule in their transition to a Division I program:
“We're just now going Division I and I think for a lot of our young women, they haven't fully seen what's it's like to compete at the Division I level. It's going to be three years before we can compete for a bid in the NCAAA Tournament. This is just a good chance to give them a taste of what that would look like if were to go to the NCAA Tournament, because that's the type of team that we would have to go up against potentially in the first round. So I think there's a lot to take from it, and it gives them a chance to see what that next level is like.”
On keeping her team motivated even though UMass Lowell is ineligible for the NCAA Tournament until the 2017-18 season because of their transition to Division I:
“We don't think about that day-to-day. We go day-to-day thinking about what we need to accomplish in practice that day or what we need to accomplish in a game. Our championships are our games. We still get to end the season with a record. We don't want to throw those three years away just because we're not competing in the NCAA Tournament. We want to have the best performance that we can right now. Each one of our games is important to us.”
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