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Jan. 12, 2014

Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Album media-icon-photogallery.gif

Head coach Joanne Boyle

Opening Statement
“Great game. It was a great college basketball game. A lot of credit (should be given) to Notre Dame. They’re obviously the number two team in the nation for a reason. I’m just so proud of my team and how they came out poised and confident and worked their butts off to put themselves in a position to win this game.”

On responding to Notre Dame’s 13-point lead early in the second half:
“We talked about that during half time. I said `You know what? They’re getting chewed out right now because it’s a motivational tactic to come out and try to put that team away in the first four minutes, first five minutes of the second half’. I them do not buy into that. Do not buy into the fact that they’re going to come out there and pound us; do not let it happen. I thought we came out with a confidence. So when they did go out on a run, we called a timeout and the kids knew that was their run, `Here we go.’ We look at moments like that in terms of just staying the course.”

On the potential of the Virginia team:
“We’ve been young, and our youth is now maturing. You saw out there on any given night anyone can be out there playing and contributing. It’s different people on different nights and that’s the great thing about being coach when you have nine, ten, eleven players out there and you just don’t know, so you’re throwing everybody in. It is great to see. I love the depth and I love the maturity of this team.”

On defending against Notre Dame’s potent offense:
“I thought we did a decent job on [Jewell] Loyd in the first half, but then she came back like `I’m going to get mine.’ What great players do is they find a way to score and she just came off and started attacking the rim as [Kayla] McBride did. We tried. There’s nothing I can say. They are All-Americans for a reason. They make big plays.”

Sophomore guard Faith Randolph:

On the value of playing competitively with a difficult team:
“It’s just the feeling that we can play against anybody. We love opportunities like this. Notre Dame is second in the country and we can go up against them. We have this stretch of all ranked teams and we’re just going to go at it.”

On her role as an energizer of the team:
“We’re just running the offense. When I see a shot that I think I can make I take it, and that’s what I did.”

Junior center Sarah Imovbioh:

On recognizing Faith Randolph’s spark:
Oh definitely, because I know she is going to bring that energy and that intensity. She will drive really hard to the basket.

On holding her own against bigger opponents:
“I just feel like it’s a challenge. Coach will say, ‘Oh we don’t have a 6’4 on our team, they are going to try and come and bully us because we are so little.’ And I just take that as a challenge and just to stop them.”

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