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Quotes: Duke 90, Grand Canyon 47
11/17/2016 9:54:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Joanne P. McCallie
Opening Statement:
“Just a great game for us to work on and get better. We're excited to hit the road and to play on Sunday. I thought that Kyra [Lambert] not only scored points and did some nice things statistically, but more importantly, she was very commanding on the floor as a point guard, getting people in the right spots, running things, and communicating. It's just fun to see Oderah [Chidom] play, she just has that knack for scoring and getting around people and that's just great to see that she can do and she can do that against anybody. So we're excited to build from this and to get out there on Sunday.”
On Duke's advantage in the paint:
“Obviously, we've got a special team that's developing. We have very strong guard play and a lot's been talked about, but we have very strong post play. Our posts can not only score, but they can pass well, as you saw, high low passing and looking for each other. So the paint points are huge, and then of course Kyra I mean has really answered the bell, it's really kind of funny because we talked about it this summer, in terms of who would cover Bec[ca Greenwell and who would do what. It didn't take much thought to figure out that nobody can box Kyra out. She's too quick and too strong. Remember this is a young person who benches 160 pounds, which is probably more than any of you can do. So she's really using her strengths, and that's what we're all about is trying to use our strengths, and our post game is one of our strengths. We just need to stay patient, find the right openings, and I thought Oderah was a great example of that. She stays patient and finds the right openings for her and we go from there.”
On adjustments during the game:
“I think it's just the team picking it up and really getting focused. I think that we worked on a lot of things defensively. Grand Canyon finished third in the WAC last year, they're a very good team. They're going to knock off some people. We've played some interesting teams relative to this early schedule and now we kind of break into another part of the schedule with more challenge. But really, it's all been challenging because it's challenging us to do the right thing at the right time, to make the right decision. I was happy that we had only 13 turnovers, because we had 11 in the first half or so. So the first half we were a little bit casual with the ball, we corrected that and were better in the second half. Those are things that we're looking to do.”
On the defensive intensity of this game:
“I think our team is enjoying playing defense and I think they're beginning to understand how they can play off of each other defensively. Often you talk about that with offense, to play off each other, follow each other, move with the ball, but defensively we're beginning to close traps better and get our stealers in the right position better, so that we can attack. We didn't have a lot of steals, as you can see tonight, so they did a good job. I mean, they're a well-coached team, Trent [May] does a great job with them. They're extremely well coached and what we did so well is their shooters never really got comfortable. So we had some great exterior defense and we learned some lessons from number 3 [Marina Laramie], she's a great player. She played well. We had her scouted to be a great player and she still played well, so we'll learn from that also.”
On the development of Duke's bench players:
“They're coming on strong. I thought Kendall [Cooper] played strong tonight. You had mentioned Leaonna [Odom], she, it's hard to say that name, it's hard to say that, as a first year she's doing great. She's frustrated. She's a very, very good player, she knows she can do more, she wants to do more, and we're just telling her be patient. There's a transition coming to this level, it's extremely physical. She's doing great, Kendall did well. I mean Faith [Suggs] and Crystal [Primm] are coming on very strong. Crystal is still coming off that injury. She's a little bit frustrated because she wants to do more, but the reality is it takes time. So she's coming back, Faith looked really good. Lyneé [Belton] was doing some nice things rebounding wise, but her knee got sore, so we took her out. It's a process, but if everybody will play their role to the fullest, that makes us a very, very dangerous team.”
Sophomore Guard Kyra Lambert
On her ability to get rebounds:
“So Coach P [McCallie] has been allowing me to go in there and use my quickness to get around people and try to not be able to be boxed out. Just kind of flying in there and crashing the boards has been a focus for me.”
On looking for her shot in the first half:
“So they came out in what looked like a triangle and two defense. So, I just tried to take the opportunities and hit a couple shots so they'd break out of it and kind of get off our shooters more.”
Senior Forward Oderah Chidom
On having 10 of Duke's first 12 points after halftime:
“It was just the way the game flowed. Whoever is open and whoever has the hot hand find them, and my teammates did a great job of finding me the ball.”
On missing a few makeable shots in the first half:
“Yeah, there was a couple shots that are in my mind that I just missed. It wasn't the defense it was just me and talking to Coach [McCallie] about staying focused and playing my game and just kind of forgetting about it is what I do best.”
Grand Canyon head coach Trent May:
Opening statement:
“We were hoping to battle a little bit better than we did tonight. I think we will definitely take some positives from this game. I think the thing that was just disappointing was our interior defense was not even close to living up to what we were hoping it would be tonight. We got outmatched in a lot of ways, but we also did not do the little things, the mechanics, that we needed to do inside and gave up too many easy buckets, which caused a quick deficit midway through the second period. That was a huge difference and I don't think we were able to overcome any of that, and they kind of had their way inside all night long.”
On shooting 31 3's:
“It's kind of what we had. We didn't have much luck inside. We didn't get in the paint as often as we'd like. Thirty-one is actually not bad for us because we have a lot of girls who can really knock it down. Not evident of that tonight. And sometimes you have to have the right people taking the right shots at the right time. I feel like we rushed some 3's, and I feel like we just kind of settled in some ways. I think in some games 31 3's may not be the worst thing for us.”
On Marina Laramie's performance:
“She did a fantastic job. She's a great player. Has no fear, obviously. Plays hard on both ends of the floor. She has a lot of confidence, she has a lot of confidence shooting the basketball, and filling up the stat sheet. I thought she did a good job with that. Obviously the best one for us tonight on the boards as well. Both ends of the floor, she did a really good job.”
On “going small” in the second half:
“It was the way [the game] dictated. We're not big in a lot of positions. I think, obviously, playing somebody on the caliber of Duke with their tall players and especially high quality of depth they have and just inside presence really gave us a lot of fits. I don't think it really mattered who we were going to put inside. I actually don't like the way we rotated. There wasn't much resistance inside. Duke had a lot of easy opportunities, and I give them credit for knocking down the shots they needed to. They shot the ball extremely well all over the floor. I think inside, interior wise, we would have liked to been a little bit stronger, and produced a little bit more toughness in there.”
On positives taken from the game:
“I think we learned going down the stretch, we're looking to make steps each time we take the floor. And I think you realize, in moments like this when it is tough, especially when you look at the scoreboard, you see a lot of adversity.
I think we saw some players who really stepped up and didn't have a lot of fear, and played with some confidence. Even though it may not have gone their way, there was still that evidence that they were confident on the floor. They weren't scared of what was going on, the situation. We saw some that kind of struggled a little bit in tough situations. So it's always good to see who's going to rise to the top in those moments.”
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