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Women's Basketball
vs Countdown to Craziness
Quotes: Duke 67, Virginia 52
2/4/2016 9:58:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Joanne P. McCallie
Opening Statement:
“I think it was a game of runs a bit, I was very proud of our defense down the stretch, our fourth quarter defense in particular. Really three out of four quarters, we got out of hand a little bit in the third quarter. I want to compliment Kyra for taking out number 1 [Mikayla Venson] who is a terrific player, she did not score when Kyra [Lambert] was put on her, and also the work the Crystal [Primm] did off the bench on 12 [Breyana Mason] who is another one of their good players. Of course, I want to compliment Becca [Greenwell], I thought she had a terrifically aggressive game and really worked hard out there and found her openings, and took advantage which was fantastic. Anytime Becca has 12 rebounds she is having quite a game, she is all over the floor which is terrific. I thought Angela [Salvadores] got into stride and did some wonderful things for us, especially at the end of the half. That nice shot, that nice finish, and scoring and being a threat out there. Obviously I won't talk about what I don't want to talk about right now which is bad on the stat sheet, and if you want to know about that thing that is bad on the stat sheet you can ask the players, because I am not talking about it.”
On playing without Azurá Stevens:
“She hurt that foot during the Notre Dame game early, it was a real bummer. I wondered why during the Notre Dame game she looked a little unfocused I didn't know what was going on. She hurt it early, and tore that, so that was very bad and we knew then that she wasn't going to be able to go. It doesn't change our prep, we prep the same way. I have a lot of confidence in this team. I mean, to me this is a great opportunity, let's see how this team steps up, let's see how it develops. 17 assists that is fantastic, we need to get to the free throw line more, we didn't do that, but Angela really stepped up with shot making and scoring, and I thought Erin [Mathis] was really solid. I just thought we had some really solid team play, and we are building our team and it is wonderful with Azurá out to be able to build it. This team understands how it can play, and we could score a lot more points if we didn't do the bad thing.”
On turnovers:
“I think it is not unusual especially when you have talented players at the passing level, like Angela, it is not unusual she would have seven turnovers because she is thinking quickly and the team is still not understanding. We have been slowing down in our transition to incorporate Angela because of the injuries that Angela suffered, but now we are at that place that this could be a place we could've even been back in December. So I have to compliment Angela because part of it is, you have turnovers when you have good players matching up with players who had not played with that player. What I'm saying is you will notice that the turnovers don't go from Angela to Becca, Rebecca to Angela, and so I have told Angela she just needs to slow down, be patient, and just maybe pull back some of those until we get to the place where we can get to understanding how we are going to be.”
On being patient and pushing the pace:
“You just keep everyday being aware and growing. We will watch on film, we will look at stuff. Every day you get a little bit better, every day you try to, we have never played without Azurá, you can say what you want to say but that probably affected our turnovers. That's a new concept, and I know it sounds like 'Gee, you don't want that,' but when you are without player who is pretty key, and pretty central to most of our offenses, so that is part of it. So we are just going to keep moving forward, we will give them a hard time about it. I always tell Angela she is too good of a player, too special of a player to turn the ball over, and the same is true of Becca. You just don't want to give any gifts, so we gave some gifts but we will learn from it.”
Freshman Guard Angela Salvadores
Freshman Guard Angela Salvadores
On her chemistry with Rebecca Greenwell:
“I think she's a great player, so it's easy to play with her. And she's always behind me to throw the pass. So I know where she is all the time. It's easy.”
On what is causing turnovers:
“I think I have too many turnovers. But it's not the first time. So I have to improve. I just have to think more, and not pass too fast, because sometimes I think too fast and throw the ball out of bounds.”
Redshirt Sophomore Guard Rebecca Greenwell
Redshirt Sophomore Guard Rebecca Greenwell
On playing without Azurá Stevens:
“I think it was just some things that came to me. I talked with Angela a little bit before the game and told her that we have some big shoes to fill with Azurá out, and to look for her openings and she did a great job with that, doing different things: assists, scoring, but I think it was a team effort.”
On what was discussed during the first timeout:
“Just to calm down and play more poised. I think we were rushing and they were getting some quick shots off in transition and we just needed to shut down their good two players.”
On her chemistry with Angela Salvadores:
“I think it's been great. I'm really confident playing with Angela. She makes some amazing passes; you just really have to be ready for it, but especially the trails today were open, and I think we played well off of each other with those plays.”
On what is causing turnovers:
“I think we're rushing too much in transition. I think we kind of get frazzled whenever we should just play poised, get what the defense gives us, and we need to slow down and stop rushing.”
On going after rebounds without Azurá Stevens:
“I think we knew we had a chip on our shoulders with her out this game and we just tried to focus on that beforehand. I think everyone did a great job on the boards offensively and defensively.”
Virginia head coach Joanne Boyle:
Virginia head coach Joanne Boyle:
Opening Statement:
“I'm just disappointed on how we came out in the second quarter and dug ourselves a hole and then just tried to get out of it. Duke is a good team and they really rebounded the ball well and that was obviously a big difference-maker in the game for us,”
On Azurá Stevens not playing:
“We didn't know two minutes before that she was doing that, but they run the matchup zone and they ran some man to man and 22-44 in the rebounds tells a big story. They started Erin Mathias knowing that that was their M.O. and they rebounded the ball as hard as they could and they took advantage of us that way. Never getting second chance points, you are really depending on making your first shot which is just tough.”
On starting both halves well:
“I think we just played free early. I think they started in a two-three zone and we came out and hit a lot of shots. We just got really good stops, boxed out well in the first couple minutes of the game and went down and hit a lot of really nice shots. Then they changed their defense and we got quiet and really uncertain about what we wanted to do and took ill-will shots and were not in a flow offensively. That forced a lot of shots for us and they got transition off of that. Again, just opened the game up and we didn't really correct that until the second half. We made a run and closed it to within six or seven but again the rebounding really hurt us.”
On size and length affecting getting ball inside:
“I think [Lauren Moses] was probably pressing too much. We are a much better team when we have great balance. It's great that Mikayla [Venson] can take 20 shots but it puts a lot of onus on her. That inside outside balance is better for us and we had great balance on our team when we had Faith Randolph. It took a lot of pressure off of Mikayla, we just had another guard out there. So now we are really disjointed offensively, we shouldn't be because you can see in the second half we can score. For some reason, we are trying to figure ourselves out and we have to do a better job of that. We just have to be able to play more people too. It is tough to play five people 36 and 37 minutes. We have to have better balance with the people coming in off the floor too, just to be good defenders for us and good rebounders.”
On memories of Coach Kay Yow:
“Kay was just such a great woman, a great coach. She would talk to anybody in a gym. I'm sure her assistants were kind of mad at her because she would be spending time in gyms talking to coaches. She is such a mentor to so many people. She is a trailblazer, the most kind woman you would ever want to meet, no pretentiousness about her at all, and a great woman of faith. For me I just admired her as a player and as a coach, how she really put her faith forward, and knew that she was in God's will, and knew she had a platform and was using that platform to better younger people and be a mentor but at the same time she want not afraid to share her faith with people. She was real and very transparent.”
Sophomore Guard Mikayla Venson
Sophomore Guard Mikayla Venson
On having a low shooting percentage as a team:
“Just confidence. Shooting comes with confidence and knowing that you can knock the shot down at the end of the day. It wasn't that Duke's length or anything bothered us, it was just having the courage to knock down the shot.”
Players Mentioned
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