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Nov. 29, 2017

Recap | Final Stats

Virginia Head Coach Joanne Boyle
Opening Statement:
“This was a tough loss. I thought it was a great, competitive game. I am just proud of the girls, but also give a lot of cretdit to Maryland. We had a game plan and for the most part we executed. We just could not create some chippies down the stretch and came up on the short end. I appreciate that they believed they could win this game, they had a fight about them. We never quit, even when we got down 10 or 12, we had a fight. We just have to be able to build off of this.”

On moral victory:
“I hate that word, moral victory. For me it’s just more about the leading, setting a standard, competing every night, believing you can win and no matter what the deficit, you can always come back. I just hope this is a game for us that shows us what we can do. Hopefully we can build off of that moving forward.”

Senior Guard J’Kyra Brown
On 11-0 run in fourth quarter:
“After the timeout we switched up our defense . We knew what we had to do going out. That was the motivation going forward. And that was the motivation for all the girls. We knew that we needed a stop to get us going and it just rolled over for three posessions.”

On what they did defensively to stay in the game:
“It was just a sense of urgency and listening to the coaches. We had faith in them to switch up the defense and I think we executed well. We just came up short.”

On being that close:
“I mean we work on this all the time in practice and we talk about being in these moments. It’s just all about keeping our composure during the game and also making sure we execute down the stretch and knock down shots.”

Maryland Head Coach Brenda Frese
Opening Statement:
“Virginia played really inspired. They were really, really tough tonight. We are a young team, and, as you see, we are growing game by game and possession by possession. Tough game overall for us in terms of how we like to play, but we were fortunate. Steph Jones showed up for us tonight. She was huge with her presence in every shape of what we could get tonight, and with her toughness and her tenacity. Playing these types of games on the road, to come out in a hostile environment, will just help make us better for the future.”

On what changed during Virginia’s 11-0 run:
“I do not think we handled their buzz defense very well with their trapping, their defense, and their length. They were able to take advantage of our young guard play, and it really bothered us.”

On what changed in the second half with Virginia getting so many paint points:
“Obviously, their six-foot-nine kid [Felicia Aiyeotan] had one of her best games. She was a huge presence inside [the paint], as you see with her six blocks. She took away a lot of things inside for us. We made the game a lot more difficult than what it needed to be, but credit them defensively. They threw a lot of different looks at us.”

On whether the team prepared more for Aiyeotan or Virginia’s guard play:
“Honestly, the guard play. She [Aiyeotan] had not presented that she had played more than 18 minutes a game so to see her get 27 minutes tonight was a huge advantage for them. I thought she was extremely active with the game that she had tonight. Again, I thought Virginia was sensational – they just showed great poise and toughness, and they were really hungry, battling for this game.”

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