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Quotes: Duke 77, Wake Forest 68
3/6/2015 3:34:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Joanne P. McCallie
Opening Statement:
“I just thought it was a hard fought game, and very physical game and a great game for us to prep to keep getting better, in particular the rebounding. There was some pretty awesome rebounding out there, offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds, and to be out rebounded is not something that we're used to, not something we appreciate. That was a good lesson for us to focus on and to refocus. I was very proud of Kendall in terms of her aggressiveness in coming off the bench and giving us such confidence and such great moves, tremendous duck ins and a lot of aggression. I thought Becca was, as always, competing hard, looking for things and attacking, which is very important, and Elizabeth, those 16 rebounds were huge since too many we only had 10 with Azura and 16 with Elizabeth. We've got to get everybody involved in the rebounding deal, and I think everybody knows that. But I'm proud of the team for the fight out there, especially despite the foul trouble that cost us a little bit, as well.”
On Cooper's 21-point performance:
“Well, Kendall is a very good player. You have your gifts and you have to use them, and I thought today she did. I'm very confident in a lot of our players to pull big games like that. It takes focus and concentration. I didn't think it was easy. I didn't think Kendall was left open. I thought she worked for it. She had some beautiful duck ins, some tough defense, and she made some huge plays. That's just a great thing. We're a lot better team when we have more people being that aggressive.”
On her message to the team when Wake Forest cut the lead to three:
“Probably just slowing down on offense and executing and probably rebounding and getting some good stops. I think we kind of went in and out of the game. It wasn't a full 40 minutes for us. We played segments of it very, very well, but it wasn't a continuous segment. So probably something in that nature.”
On what lessons can be taken away from the contest:
“Yeah, I think I just position aggressiveness to the ball, and also more people rebounding. Becca has had as many as 14 rebounds in a game, 14 or 15, and Ka'lia. We have some rebounders. I think there's sometimes a lot going on when you're getting ready for a game, and I think the important thing is to boil it down. And basically if you own the boards and if you're aggressive, you basically control the game. And so I think we'll get more people involved and be quicker to box out and quicker to the ball, as well.”
On Wake Forest's improved field goal shooting in the second half:
“I think they got some good shots. I thought our defense was a bit soft in the second half and our communication was, as well, in terms of where people were. I see them getting some high post shots and other things, 15 hit a couple, and I just think that we weren't as aggressive. I thought we were extremely aggressive in the first half, causing them to miss more, and I think that's the nature of defense. When you can make a team miss, you're in business. Now, we did that first half, but not as much second half. Give them credit; they fought really, really hard.”
On the competitiveness of the conference, with Wake Forest and Virginia Tech reaching the quarterfinals:
“It's a great conference. You know, any night, all these teams Wake is a terrific team. You cannot be at all thinking about records at this point. They took some hits in the regular season clearly, but you can see what they've got. Hamby is one of the best players in the league, and those guards have stepped up a great deal. That was not any kind of big seed they were as good as anybody in this tournament in a lot of ways. The seeds don't matter. Nothing matters at this point. When you have seniors that are really getting after it, that's a plus, as well. I just thought they were excellent, and they played some really good basketball.”
On the semifinal matchup with either Miami or Notre Dame:
“I mean, you know, Miami and Notre Dame, they're great teams. I can only say that we had a pretty good game against Miami at home. It would be good to play them again because they're a great team. Notre Dame, again, we started the game 14 5 and were in control of that game in the first 10 minutes and then just did not manage any sense of control after that. Jewell Lloyd made a huge difference in that game. But to me it's a team effort. It'll take better rebounding than tonight because everyone is going to have to get down and dirty and get involved, but I think that would be true of anybody we play at this juncture. These teams are all very good, and they're all very beatable, too, but they're all very good, and so you've really got to bring your A game and A effort to it. And at the same sense if you're fortunate, get better, too, in the process.”
Duke Senior Elizabeth Williams
On scoring after Wake cut the score to three:
“Yeah, I think it was just important to be aggressive, like you said, and the opportunity was there on the high post. I had the driving lane, so I just kind of took it myself. I mean, yeah, that was kind of it.”
On facing Wake's Dearica Hamby over the past four years:
“She's a great player. She's improved tremendously each year that she's played. She's really active, so she's hard to keep contact with her and hard to box out. I mean, it's definitely fun playing against someone like that in this league.”
On whether she felt fatigued at all during the game:
“I think we felt pretty good. I mean, coach did a good job of rotating us pretty well, and I think media timeouts are always helpful.”
On receiving the Kay Yow Award:
“I mean, it's incredible. It's such an honor to win such an award. Academics is definitely important to me, and like I said, it's just really an honor to win an award like that and to kind of see my hard work in something like that.”
Duke Sophomore Kendall Cooper
On her 21-point performance:
“I just felt great coming out there playing with Elizabeth and Amber and all of our posts down low, really helped carry the momentum into the game, and then finding Becca when she's open. I mean, it feels great to help teammates and get yours at the same time.”
On her injury in the first half:
“It was just a minor injury. She fell on top of me, but I'm okay now.”
Duke Redshirt Freshman Rebecca Greenwell
On what the team can improve heading into the semifinals:
“Like Coach P said, defensive rebounding, those are the two main things we try to focus on every game, so we definitely need to improve there.”
On her mindset going into her first ACC Tournament game:
“Yeah, I was just really excited to be out there this time. I kind of got a little taste of it last year, just being on the sidelines. Just really excited it's finally here.”
Players Mentioned
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