Quotes: Duke 68, Penn 55

Duke Head Coach Joanne P. McCallie

Opening Statement:
“Just a really proud of our team. We started out just amazingly well offensively and that was a great thing for us. It's hard to stay up with that kind of pace, but I'm so glad our defense was as strong as it was. That team is a very difficult team to defend because of their exterior and their interior. Obviously their interior took it to us a little bit, but I was really proud of our guard play defensively, especially Becca [Greenwell], Lexie [Brown], Kyra [Lambert], everybody who played out there, just pressuring the ball and causing them, a team that I think will be back in the NCAA tournament again this year, a team that almost beat Washington last year, a really special team. They've got a great team and to have them shoot 30% from the floor, that says a lot for defense and hustle and intensity by our team.”

On what she learned about the team today:
“Our team, I'm really proud of our team. Our team is really hard on themselves, which I've got to get that out of them. They're really hard on themselves. They want to play a certain way all the time, which is a special way to play, but we've got to work into that process of being consistent. I love how we fight, I love our competition level, and I love our intensity, but I'd like us too to also handle the ebbs and flows of games a little bit better. We get frustrated at times because things aren't going our way or somebody makes a mistake and basketball is a game of mistakes. It's all about how you ride through it. I think we're going to learn a lot from this game, a lot about ourselves, and be a lot better for it.”

On the sequence after Penn cut the lead to seven:
“I just think it was a refocusing of our team. I mean, I think we got a little fast at times. You know, you have to remember how fast you played initially and everything was working. I mean, Kyra scored six points in 10 seconds or whatever she did. I've never seen that before. I think at times, we learned a high level that we want to achieve and I think we struggled with our pace at times in the offense. So, just by a timeout there is a refocus and a better pace and the players found each other and executed. We just had to slow down a little bit, we were playing pretty fast there for a while, in a way that was kind of not allowing us to see all the openings on the floor.”

On the team's cohesion:
“I think we're older. When you have six freshmen on any team, I think you don't have cohesion. It's very difficult. Well now these freshmen have turned into sophomores, they've learned a lot from last season, and then of course Becca's got great experiences and Lex does as well, as Oderah [Chidom] with her 14 rebounds today. I think it's just a matter of time. Our chemistry is good, I think it's going to get a lot better. One of the best things about tonight was we hit on something early that was spectacular. Offensively early, we were an extremely high level and that is a difficult thing to handle because it is hard to maintain it. It's hard to keep up like that, so we have something that we can look at and really work on and see what was special about it, but I just think it's a great November game. That was an NCAA game in November, you can't ask for anything better than that.”

On Oderah Chidom's performance:
“She was at times learning that there was a lot going on, obviously with the two very good players for them. I thought she had a tough assignment to try to maneuver with those players, so the fact that she pulled 14 rebounds in between the two of them I thought shows how tough she can be and how she is willing to go after the ball. That was a big thing for us. We've got to get some more double-figure rebounders to join her, but that was important that she saw what she could do because that is quite a post combination they have.”

On having Kendall Cooper back:
“That's what athletics is all about. Sometimes you get knocked down and you need to get back up again. I think Kendall [Cooper] has really been a great model of that, and she is still trying to figure out her way. When you don't play for a year, and I know Lexie can talk about this, there is a transition to coming back to competition and I think Kendall is within that right now. I think Lexie is busting through it a little bit, but there is a real process when you haven't played the game for a year.”

Redshirt Sophomore Guard Rebecca Greenwell

On running the offense against Penn's defense:
“Yeah we were talking about it, it was an interesting defense. It was kind of a zone but also kind of a man. But, we just tried to stick to what works. We still continued to run our offenses, just there weren't the normal openings. We kind of had to just see what the defense gave us and just play from there.”

On being able to attack the defense with players such as Lexie Brown and Kyra Lambert:
“It's great, it's really fun to play with players like Lexie [Brown] and Kyra [Lambert]. It makes a huge difference just having their basketball IQs on the floor, they can handle it. Lexie was a great point guard before she got here and she's even better this year. Also, you can see a huge transformation in Kyra just from her freshman year to her sophomore year. So I think just the experience that they have is what's helping us with our turnovers this year."

Junior Guard Lexie Brown

On running the offense against Penn's defense:
“We were literally just talking about that in the hallway. We just had to work together a little better. I know that in the second half we kind of exploited that high-low a little better, which we kind of missed the whole first half, and that is what got us going in the second half is Erin [Mathias] and Oderah [Chidom] exploiting that high post area. It was wide open the whole game and we finally just found it.”

On sitting out a year before now being able to play:
“I'm so excited, I'm just so happy. You know I look at the game with a different appreciation and a different love now. Game days are extra special to me now. I definitely am so happy that I am here. I made the right decision of coming here. That year was long but I learned so much and I'm able to show what I learned this upcoming season.”

Penn head coach Mike McLaughlin:

Opening statement:
“I said to the team that I'm really proud of them. This was probably as bad a start as we could ask for and they didn't put their heads down and we tried to grind it away possession by possession. I've seen games like that turn into something really lopsided. It was a tough start when they hit a three and an inbound and an-one, especially in this environment for our team, but overall I thought we clawed back and I thought our post play was terrific tonight. It's a learning experience for us; we had some possessions that we'd like to have back, but I'd like to give them credit. Their guard play was very, very good and when we got it down to seven in the beginning of the half, they made three or four plays coming out of that time-out, so I give credit to them.”

On Sydney Stipanovich and Michelle Nwokedi's post play:
“Michelle just grew as the game went on. She's tough to guard, she can obviously shoot the three, she can go by you off the dribble, and she's really skilled around the basket. Michelle and Sydney work really well together. Sydney's tough to guard because she can step out and shoot a jump shot. I don't think you'll find many 6'3''-6'3 ½'' players that can do that. They're going to take us as far as we're going to go. We do a lot of things around them and I think that they both in this environment did really well.”

On having to press virtually the entire game and the toll it took on the team:
“I thought mentally we handled it really well. We called a time-out and I didn't say much to them other than just to reboot and start over. That's a tough start, but overall, it took a little bit out of us, of course, but as I say, we're going to grow mentally, we're going to bounce back to that, and look at that and say 'we can do some pretty good things.' We talk about the mental piece of the game all the time and right in front of us that was a really bad start, and I thought we managed it pretty well.”

On outscoring Duke after the first quarter for the rest of the game:
“I don't think we came here to have a moral victory, but with that said, I think this is a long season and we have a mature group. We have a very good group, really prideful student athletes, and we knew it would be a really tough win for us if we were going to do it. I think we'll grow from this and mature as a team and we'll be in that situation again and hopefully we'll be a little bit better for it.”

On coming off of a record-breaking season and looking forward to the rest of the season:
“We returned everyone from last year so we have a good balance of freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. We're probably going to get some of these younger kids to contribute for us as the year goes on to extend our bench a little bit. I think our prospects are good and this is the way we play. If it's Duke, or going to be Binghamton, or whoever else we're playing next, we compete, and we compete as hard as anyone. They love to play and they want to be the best.”

Penn Junior Forward Michelle Nwokedi

On what was different about Duke between this year and last year:
“I would say their guard play is a lot better. Coming into the game we knew they were more of a guard team than most teams, but I think our guards did a really good job with the pressure of their guards. I mean honestly Duke's guards are really good, so I think our guards did the best that they could.”

On incorporating a three-point shot into her game:
“At the end of last year me and coach talked and taking my game to the next step I need to be able to get open and shoot that three and be able to knock it down. That's what I'm working on.”

On getting down 13-0 to start the game:
“I think it was just nerves. When coach called a time out we all just looked at each other and were like 'it's fine just relax we are okay' and we came back out ready to play.”

On being guarded by four players over 6'3”:
“For me and for the team, I mean we love competition. Coming into this game from last we knew they weren't going to take us lightly, so I like that. I like going up against teams that are going to give it 100%, so I was just playing off of whatever they gave me.”

On how playing in Cameron compares to playing in Palestra:
“I mean home is home. I love Palestra, but it was a really good experience to come into Cameron and experience the environment.”

On nerves to start the game:
“I would say it was definitely just jitters from it being the first game of the season, but I think it was a really good game to lead us into our future games. I think starting off 13 and 0 is not what we wanted, but going into future games we know we can come back and fight through it.”

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