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Jan. 3, 2013

Recap | Final Stats | Photo Gallery media-icon-photogallery.gif

UVa coach Joanne Boyle

On the game:
“Excited to get our first ACC win. I think Virginia Tech played hard, when they got down they didn’t quit. They came back and gave us a game. Really just glad to get our first win.”

On the second half
“We got into panic mode late in the game. I don’t know why, but there are a couple things that we need to be better at. When you’re starting to build a lead on a team you have to have the mentality that you’re going to put them away and we just relax and were not going to be in that situation much in the ACC so you have to take advantage of it and really hound it. I think we just let up and we let up at different times.”

On takes from the game:
“There’s always positives that you can takes from wins and losses, and from this one it’s good to see that our team can grind and grind it out. China hit some big free throws and our post got some big rebounds. I’m glad we did that, but let’s try not to put ourselves in those situations if we don’t have to.”

UVa player China Crosby:

On the game:
“What’s going through my mind is that we need to stay poised and run our offensive sets. We didn’t really do a good job of that tonight. Coach Boyle always tells us when we hit panic mode, when we panic as a team, as the leader on the floor I need to do a better job of controlling the team and making sure we do the things that we did earlier in the game to get a lead.”

On her game-winning shot:
I was going to pull it out to run our offensive set, but Coach Boyle was waving her hand saying “just go”, and when she said that I went and tried to make a play. I’m really glad it went in, but I was really just trying to get to the free throw line and hit the free throws. And I’m always excited about stuff like that, so really just excited about the play as well.”

UVa player Ataira Franklin:

On China Crosby’s play:
“The way China yelled at the end, that’s how I felt on the inside. But I feel like when China is hype then I need to be the one to calm everyone down, to set the defense, and make sure we stay poised. But I think that’s just the balance of leadership and responsibility between China and me. But it was exciting for her to make such clutch shots and really just pull it out for us.”

Virginia Tech head coach Dennis Wolff

Opening statement:
“We are really, really disappointed because we got control of the game and we didn’t close it out. I’m really proud of the effort the girls gave in coming back from the deficit we were in. I thought these two [Monet Tellier and Uju Ugoka] played very hard and very well throughout the game. I thought our freshman were a little bit nerved up when the game started and Taijah [Campbell] settled down pretty good as the game went on and Hannah [Youg] did a very good job defensively throughout. It became a possession game and we had a couple oreally bad possessions there in the last minute and a half.”

On Monet Tellier and Uju Ugoka’s efforts:
“The thing in regards to both of these kids is every time the ball was in their hands, they were trying to make plays to win the game. This is the first time as a group, the three of us were in a game like that. She [Uju Ugoka] was going to try to make a play and turned to face her man just like Mo [Tellier] tried to make a play on the last one.”

On one of the last plays of the game when Aerial missed a jumper:
“They are a well-coached, good defensive team and that was an eight foot pull up jumper, so yeah I’m good with it.”

On the last several bad possessions:
“We had one where we turned it over right there at half court. Then we had a bad defensive possession that we didn’t close out and they ended up getting a basket on where we guarded them pretty well and the ball got kicked out.”

On it being a closer game than their last two games:
“We still lost. That’s it. We lost. It’s a rivalry game because they’ve won a bunch of games. Until we start winning a couple of these games, it’s really us trying to beat them. There is no consolation at all. These kids are bitterly disappointed; we thought we could have won the game.”

On Virginia Tech’s first half:
“They are a good defensive team and we are not a great outside shooting team. They slowed us down and we made an adjustment at halftime that enabled us to flow into offense a little bit quicker in the second half.”

Virginia Tech player Monet Tellier

On Virginia Tech’s improvements in the second half:
“We were just more physical. We attacked them instead of them attacking us the whole game. Like coach said, we had control of the game for a minute there. We just didn’t finish it out.”

On her improvement in the second half:
“I did not have a good first half but coming off of half time, Coach Wolff told me to stop trying so hard so I started letting the game come to me and just flew into it.”

Virginia Tech player Uju Ugoka:
On having the lead with less than two minutes to go and then having a turnover:”It was a good defensive play and I wasn’t strong with the ball. I went right into their defense and that’s what cost the turnover right there.”

On playing against Sarah Imovbioh:
“It was kind of cool because she was my childhood friend and playing with her today was kind of fun. It was nice playing with her again.”

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