Duke Quotes at Virginia

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Feb. 8, 2013

Duke Head Coach Joanne P. McCallie Quotes – 2/9/13

On game play:
Just a great defensive game, I think, and much better second half for us as a team. I was really happy to see Elizabeth attacking like she did in the second half. I thought she was really, really nailing a lot of physical play, and also finding a way to make it work for her. The same was true with Haley. I thought she played consistent throughout the game, and very important in the second half too. I don’t like the fact that we only had 15 assists. I think we’re a better passing team than that. That’s what happens sometimes, and the rebounding stats I’m not too impressed with either. Really great second half for us in terms of doing some things, executing a little bit better.
“I really liked our poise when we were down nine. I think this team is a very focused team, and I don’t think that posed much of a problem relative to our team continuing to execute, and try to do the right things. [There were] great lessons in this game. Great lessons to apply to next, no doubt about that.”

On staying poised when trailing:
“I think we played hard and aggressive. I don’t remember all of the plays in the 11-0 run. I just think that we took it up a few levels. We really did not start the game very aggressively, so I think we just kind of took advantage of some plays, and went from there.”

On Virginia’s China Crosby:
“She’s a really good player, point guard. She definitely gave a little run there, defensively, and had a lot of energy. We tried to pressure her as much as we could. She had seven turnovers, so hopefully we were somewhat part of that. She’s a good guard. She’s been through a lot with her knee and come back strong. We definitely wanted to limit her ability to make plays out there. Both Alexis (Jones) and Chloe (Wells) in particular, they both tried to work on her a little bit through the course of the game.

On Duke’s Junior Guard Chelsea Gray:
“I thought Chelsea was just a confident point guard. She made huge plays, a couple of threes…but, also her play calling was the best it’s been in a while. Directing the team, leading the team, there was clarity in the second half relative to what we were doing. There wasn’t as much clarity in the first half. I thought she did a great job as a junior point guard. She’s got a lot of minutes, and she found people. The whole pace of it was great in the second half. Hayley chipped in too, with her three. We just got a lot of momentum because we were moving the ball, finding each other. We’ve got to try to come out of the gates that way, and play the whole game that way.

Sophomore Center Elizabeth Williams

On second half play:
“I think in the second half, I just tried to be more aggressive. I knew that we didn’t even get to the foul line at all the first half. That was one of my main focuses, just to attack and be aggressive.”
“When we started going on our run, it started with defense. We were dictating everything, so offensively, they weren’t in a flow. We were able to get stops and score.”

Junior Guard Haley Peters

On Duke’s Elizabeth Williams:
“I think E (Elizabeth Williams) always gets a lot of attention because she deserves it. I mean, I was just trying to be aggressive and focused, and attack the basket when the opportunities were there. E (Elizabeth Williams), when we spread the floor out, E brings a lot of people in and she was kicking the ball out really well today with four assists. That was good. I think I was just trying to stay attacking the whole game and not go in and out.”

On second half:
“I thought we had good focus. I think when we went on that run there, I think Trish (Liston) came in and was really steady and hit some shots, and had good energy off the bench. I think we do a good job as a team of handling things and staying poised and staying steady and not getting rattled. When we do that, we play well and we can get ourselves out of some ruts. We just gave up way too many offensive rebounds in the first half, so that was really the message at halftime. We weren’t happy with how we played, even though we had come back from the deficit. We weren’t happy.”