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Quotes: South Carolina 51, Duke 50
12/7/2014 4:02:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Joanne P. McCallie
Opening Statement
“That was an interesting basketball game. Obviously very defensive and very physical. It felt very much like an NCAA game. It wasn't the national championship, but it was definitely like an NCAA game. I thought it was a great game. I thought both teams worked really hard. I was really proud of our team's effort and our fight. It's great to have Elizabeth [Williams] back. She didn't get to practice much, but she gave us her all and that was important. Becca [Greenwell] did as well. I think there are probably some pretty good lessons there for us, overall. A lot of people like to make a big deal about the end of the game. I'll make a big deal of how we started the second half. They went on a 7-0 run and that is uncalled for. We did not come out with the right defensive intensity. We did a great job coming back, great job taking the lead, and a great job in many areas, but we have got to become a 40-minute defensive team. We're just not quite there yet.”
On the high number of turnovers:
“The turnovers were ridiculous. Twenty-two is too many. That's very unfortunate and will cost you. We did force 18 for them, but I just think we weren't attacking. After some experience out there turning the ball over, I think the team just attacked more and got more aggressive. You have to get into that game. It was a fight. It was a great basketball game. You had to really dictate and get to the lane and really go after it. What I remember is some tough shots being made in the lane and some tough attacks. You have to attack the paint, and that's where we lost the game. They've got 32 points in the paint and we've got 24. That's where it is.”
On the atmosphere of the crowd:
“It's great to see the support. South Carolina had great support. They really did. I think that's a tribute to what they've been working on. Coming back from being at Nebraska, they had 8,000. There were 6,000 at A&M. It says we had 6,000 today. But we have to grow our fan support. Those 6,000 weren't all us.”
On possibly calling a timeout after South Carolina scored with two seconds left:
“At that point, I ran up there – because it still was a one-point game – and the official had his back turned and it was over. It's amazing how hard it is to call a timeout. That's why we encourage the team [to call timeouts]. We had two timeouts, use them if necessary or if anything looks funny out there. There was one time I was calling a timeout, and it took me four seconds. I'm amazed by that.”
On the lessons the team can learn from its tough stretch of games:
“Soak it in. Learn, grow, get better. This is December. We're preparing for March. Take every lesson possible. Know who you are and how good we can be when we really play together or really play great defense. There are a lot of great messages. This is a long season. I feel very proud of how our team fought. It was just a great basketball game. And it could've gone either way. You think about that three-point shot that one gal shot from 9,000 feet out. That was impressive. There's some lucky play on either end, but the bottom line is that it's how you play the duration. We're going to start on the start of that second half. No way are you coming out of the locker room soft. No way.”
Duke Senior Elizabeth Williams
On the difference between her first and second half:
“Sitting with foul trouble also made a difference. I didn't really play much and then inefficiently in the first half, so in the second half I just tried to come out and bring energy to the team. Rebound, do whatever I needed to do. I just tried to get back into a rhythm. Obviously defensively we had some things that we wanted to do so I just tried to stay active.”
On adjusting to playing a good team:
“I think as far as box outs are concerned we just had to push back a little bit more, just be a little more active than we usually have to be because usually we can just reach over people. Today we actually had to use our bodies and push back and be in good positions because if we're out of position they would rebound. I mean there were some key offensive rebounds that they had that we didn't really like. We didn't do a superb job but we did okay.”
Duke Redshirt Freshman Rebecca Greenwell
On the last few seconds:
“I looked up and was expecting … I thought I was going to throw it ahead to E [Williams], but then two people trapped me, and I should have called a time-out.”
South Carolina Head Coach Dawn Staley
On the last play of the game:
“It was just a high pick and roll. We wanted Tiffany [Mitchell] to create something off of a ball screen. Obviously they took that away, but with Tiffany being herself she created a shot. That's why we put the ball in her hands. When a play breaks down she can find a way to get to the rim and she did that. Fortunately for us we have someone like A'ja Wilson to rebound the ball and put it back in.”
On Tiffany Mitchell's lack of aggressiveness on offense:
“Tiffany is just that. She has a lot of resolve I thought she exhausted herself on the defensive end. She did a tremendous job on [Rebecca] Greenwell making her work for a lot of catches and making her work for every shot she took. She probably expended a lot of energy on that side of the ball. So it took away from what she usually gives us from an offensive standpoint. I didn't hesitate as to who we wanted to have the ball at the end of the game. She definitely made a play for us. She sucked the defense in to give Asia and players that were down there an opportunity to get a rebound and put-back.”
On the game environment:
“It was great. I know we heard that there were busloads of people and people in their cars coming to cheer us on. We heard them, they created energy for us. I don't think we win this game if more people in the stands were Duke Blue Devils than South Carolina Gamecocks.”
On learning in this game:
“You do. I think we've learned in every game we play, especially the tight ones like the Syracuse game. We've been to that place where it is nip and tuck at the end. We need to get a stop or score and for us, our identity is predicated to how our opponents are playing and we can play a lot of different ways. We can play with the score being a high scoring game or much lower than what our average is. I take my hat off to our team who just fought and fought and had so much resolve to getting it done.”
On putting Olivia Gaines in for press:
“I didn't hesitate to put the ball in Tiffany Mitchell's hands, I didn't hesitate to call a timeout to get Olivia Gaines in the game because she makes things happen from a defensive standpoint. Her energy, she is a one-woman press herself. We say, 'Go get the ball, Olivia' she finds a way to get the ball and she did that for us today.”
On long-term effect of win:
“With a win like this, this is huge. It's huge because our conference, they do a really good job talking about RPI and going on the road to get a win and getting a win against a top-10 team. It's going to pay big dividends down when you're looking at NCAA tournament time, this is huge. We get a lot of RPI points for this particular game so I was happy that we were not only able to play it but to win it.”
On low rebounding numbers and size of team:
“It's a huge issue and that is partly why we didn't start the two bigs anymore because we weren't getting as much production out of them from a rebounding standpoint and a scoring standpoint. We are going to learn each and every game. We pulled all of our offensive rebounds that we gave up against Syracuse. We will do the same here. Rebounding isn't a skill, I keep telling my players that. It's a decision, you're either going to do it or you're not going to do it. For our players, we worked a lot this week. We gave up 16 but if you look at second-chance points, that didn't kill us. We were even and we got more points in the paint and I'm really happy about that particular statistic because they have some post players and they score in the paint a little bit because of their rebounding.”
South Carolina Guard/Forward A'ja Wilson
On what happened on the final play:
“We drew the play, but we went away from it because it wasn't there so had to counter act. I saw Tiffany [Mitchell] trying to get the ball up. She attacked the basket and time was running out, and we were really emphasizing rebounding. I knew what ever shot went up I was going to have to crash the boards. When she went in and missed it, it kind of just fell into my hands and I put it back up.”
On playing for South Carolina:
“It's a blessing to play here, playing with these girls and playing for Coach. I love these girls to death, we play hard, we play together and we play smart.”
On a target on her back:
“I'm not sure that target is still on my back because my teammates are just so great. They help me out on anything I go through. I think it will get tough but I know my teammates will be there for me on and off the court whenever I need it.”
South Carolina Guard/Forward Asia Dozier
On her shooting:
“One of the keys to win was to hit open shots. Knowing when the shot clock is winding down and if the ball comes back to me I have to be ready to shoot. One of my shots was a little deeper than I expected, but it went in. Hitting open shots when they were there was a confidence booster.
South Carolina Forward Aleighsa Welch
On Syracuse and Duke games:
“We needed this win today. Those were two games in which we were tested all the way down to the last minute. I just credit everyone for not hanging their heads when times got hard and just fighting through. That last minute there were plenty of times people could have hung their heads, but we fought hard and played until the very end. I credit everyone, especially Olivia Gaines who got that steal at the end, and being smart enough to call that time out.”
On how physical the game was:
“We knew we had to play through it, we were dealing with a taller team which does not happen very often. We emphasized driving to the basket, rebounding and not worrying about if our shot got blocked. I think when we stuck to that, it opened up a lot of other things. We got some drives and kicks and stuck to our game plan.”
On the fans:
“We have a great fan base. We were stretching and saw them come in and they kept coming, and coming and coming. We didn't realize how many fans would be here but it gave us extra motivation during our slumps. They kept up the emotion for us.”
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