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Virginia Women's Basketball Quotes
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Feb. 5, 2015
Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Virginia Head Coach Joanne Boyle
Opening Statement
“Notre Dame’s a great team and obviously I felt good about where we were at about the 15-minute mark of the second half. And great teams do what great teams do, and they really pushed it on us. And we caught ourselves in some bad situations with shot selection and we came out on the bad end of that. We’ll learn from it and get ready for Duke next Thursday.”
On the team’s slow start…
“We just looked really lethargic and we were not playing at the pace that we needed to be playing at. But we turned it around and called some timeouts and got it going and got it moving a little bit.”
On how Virginia was able to play Notre Dame even most of the game…
“I thought we moved the ball well offensively. I thought we took good shots. I thought we shared the basketball, and when we do that, we’re able to set our defense. And I thought we really knew what we were trying to take away from them. Not that we did it every time, but we knew what we were trying to do. So when we got stops, obviously that makes for good basketball for us. But about the 15-minute mark is where we started taking bad shots – quick shots and bad shots. And a team like Notre Dame is going to capitalize on them. And they capitalized on every single one of them.”
On Brianna Turner…
“Just a great player. A freshman, just as young as she is. It’s just her size and her athleticism – you can just throw the ball up to the rim and she can go get it. So it’s difficult, I think, for us and a lot of teams to guard that because she’s just so athletic. They set a lot of back screens for her and just lobbed it up there.”
On trying to stop Notre Dame’s inside presence…
“[We wanted to try and stop their] paint points because they score probably 80 percent, 75 percent of their points in the paint, whether that’s pull ups, layups or their post players getting their touches in there. So our emphasis is – and we didn’t do it – our emphasis was to make them score a little bit more from the outside.”
On holding Jewell Loyd to 4-15 shooting…
“I think Breyana [Mason] and Faith [Randolph] did a really good job on her. But you’ve got to stop more than one person on Notre Dame’s team. You stop one, and someone else can pick up the slack, which Brianna [Turner] did tonight. But yeah, we did some good work in our guard spots.”
Faith Randolph • Junior • Guard
On playing against former high school rival Lindsay Allen…
“She’s on Notre Dame. I’m on Virginia. It’s just a regular battle in the ACC.”
On what Notre Dame did to defend her…
“I think they just pressured up on me a lot, just face guarding me. And that’s when I need to figure out other ways to get my teammates open and find other ways to be impactful in the game.”
Notre Dame Head Coach Muffet McGraw
Opening statement…
“I was really happy with the defense in the second half. I thought we came out with a lot more intensity and focus. I thought we guarded the three-point line pretty well, guarded the inside pretty well and overall had a much better effort defensively in the second half. Brianna [Turner] had a really phenomenal game. We were able to get inside early and get some lobs to her; Lindsay [Allen] found her a couple of times and really executed well. I thought Lindsay had a good offensive game and played well defensively too.”
On utilizing Brianna Turner…
“I think for Bri it’s more about feeling a bit freer to just play instead of worrying about where she’s supposed to be on the offense. We’re trying to get her to look for her opportunities, which is hard because she’s so unselfish. Our game plan has now shifted where we can look to go inside a lot more than in the beginning of the year.”
On eliminating Virginia’s inside-outside game…
“Sarah Imovbioh is the best offensive rebounder in the league, and I was really pleased that we were able to keep her off the glass. Everybody in the post did a really good job on her, and I think Bri was able to get her hands on a couple of those shots and discouraged her from shooting, but she’s a really good player. Faith Randolph showed why she’s such a good player too. They have a really great inside-outside combination.”
On Jewell Loyd’s performance…
“She had four assists and one turnover, so I think she’s smart enough to know that she can contribute in other ways. She did a great job defensively against Randolph. She wants to make every shot, like most good players do, and I think she was frustrated because she missed some easy ones, and that’s very uncharacteristic of her, so I think she’ll probably be in the gym shortly.
“She’s a really good defender, especially on the ball, which is something we don’t really have on the bench–someone who can guard the dribbler–so she gave us some really good minutes. Defensively she was on it, she knew exactly what we were supposed to be doing. She helps us offensively all of the time, but I really like her defense.”
On the defensive performance…
“I don’t think we’re there yet. You saw in the first half where they were shooting about fifty percent, and that was disappointing to me. I think that the second half was much better, but I would like to see us play 40 minutes of really good defense.”
On what was said at halftime…
“It was a pretty calm locker room. We talked about how we were going to guard the ball screen a little differently. We talked about the press offense, and what we wanted to do offensively. I don’t think that was a giant shift in the game plan so much as an attitude and intensity that was added to the defense.”
On the team’s overall performance…
“I think we’re playing pretty well. I’m happy with where we are. We had a game where Jewell was a little bit off, and we were still able to score 75 points. I think that was something we need to see more often–that Jewell wasn’t carrying us.”
On the team outlook going forward…
“I think it’s great for us to be able to play so many good teams. There are so many good teams in this league–we have to be ready every night–and I think we are. I think we’re really coming along and finding our way. We’re putting some new stuff in, and the things we work on in practice we are able to utilize in the game. I see a lot of growth in this team and it’s exciting. We’ve got one more game and then we’ve got some time off. With our bye, we can rest up a little bit, but we’ve got to take care of business one more time.”
On how the younger players are coping with the grueling schedule…
“I think they’re doing really well right now. I think that all three of them still have a lot of energy and are still working hard at practice so I don’t think we’ve hit that wall yet. This is a time of upsets, where you have to be careful, so hopefully our veterans will make sure that the underclassmen are ready.”
On improvements to be made…
“We need to still get better offensively. Tonight we had 12 turnovers, which is pretty good, so we’re getting better in that way. I want to fix the press and see if that can get better, but we need to add some more things offensively. We’ve been relying on certain plays, and if we continue to use them people are going to try and take them away so I think it’s a time to really shake things up.”
Lindsay Allen • Sophomore • Guard
On going up against old rivals…
“I played against Faith [Randolph] for three years; we were in the same conference in high school so I played her at least three times a year. Our teams were rivals, and so it was very competitive. I played Mikayla Venson in AAU, as well as Breyana Mason.”
Brianna Turner • Freshman • Forward
On her shooting form…
“I just try and get the ball in the basket. I try and shoot it with some nice form, but sometimes that form goes away and I just bat it in.”
On her performance…
“I think the past couple games I was not leaving it all out on the floor like I could have, so I just tried to come out tonight and grab every rebound on the floor hard.
“I probably lead the country in turnovers, so it’s also nice to have a night without one.”