Jan. 24, 2010
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Post-Game Quotes
RV/RV Maryland vs. No. 6/7 Duke
Sunday, Jan. 24, 2010
College Park, Md. (Comcast Center)
FINAL SCORE: RV/RV Maryland 57, No. 6/7 Duke 58
Head Coach Brenda Frese
Opening Statement:
“Obviously there are no moral victories but I am proud of this team. Like I just told them in the locker room, if that’s the No. 6, No. 7 team in the country and the fact that this team battled and competed for 40 minutes, I’m really proud of them. I think it’s a great statement game for us and the fact that our team knows they can play with anyone. The battles we’ve been in, UNC, Miami and now Duke taught us great lessons with just how valuable possessions are. Credit Duke. I thought in the second half they just came back stronger. I thought their physicality wore us down. but again just proud of the fact that we fought back through a lot of adversity and had an opportunity and a chance to win.”
On keeping focused after two tough losses:
“Just like we talked about in the locker room, now it’s a mentality and I know how much character we have in the locker room, but we have shown we can compete with anyone in the conference and this should give us great confidence. We’ve got to get better. We’ve got to shoot free throws better. We’ve got to take care of the basketball. They did a great job on the glass in the second half so areas where they exposed us so we can only improve with this team.”
On Lori Bjork’s back-to-back three-pointers in the second half:
“I thought Lori played tremendous. She just willed this team, put the team on her back, and that’s what seniors do. Possession by possession she leaves everything out there on the floor and the energy she was giving our team and those three’s were just critical and big and she wanted to put this team on her back.”
On the energy from the crowd:
“Energy was huge. I thought it was huge and a tremendous lift. We have some of the greatest fans in the country and that definitely gave us a huge push of adrenaline.”
Senior guard Lori Bjork
On the momentum gained from her back-to-back three’s:
“I think the crowd got loud. We forced them to burn a couple of timeouts there in that stretch and got the fast-break layup. I definitely thought that could be a momentum changing type of stretch there.
On staying focused after getting down to a highly-ranked opponent:
“We talked about the things we were not doing. We put ourselves in the position by making poor decisions. We had some turnovers. We weren’t getting the looks we were supposed to get and it’s usually about us just focusing on the next play, executing. I mean we’ve been there before, down double-digits and we’ve come back.”
Freshman guard Dara Taylor
On her first Duke game:
“Definitely as a freshman you see Duke on the schedule and you can’t wait to play them, especially at home. I was really excited to come out. Jasmine Thomas is a great player trying to go up against her and just try and prove myself.”
Sophomore Forward Lynetta Kizer
On the post defense:
“I think what they’re good at is ducking in in the post and we worked on that two straight days in practices watching that ducking and when they catch the ball just playing straight up. I think that my teammates and I did an excellent job of playing them straight up and having them go through us and making tough shots.”
On the team’s personality:
“We’re still young right now but I think where we want to be at is on defense, that’s where we really want to hang our hat up and being able to stop other teams.”
Duke Head Coach Joanne P. McCallie
Opening Statement
“It was a great basketball game, obviously a very defensive basketball game and the third game for us in a week. I’m extremely proud of our team’s character. To be in such a physical game and physical battle which it was certainly a great environment for women’s basketball great to see so many fans out. I’m really proud of our fight, we had so many things working against us I thought Jasmine Thomas showed incredible poise defensively and of course offensively got on quite a run there. I thought Keturrah Jackson was as steady as she always is in terms of her attack and her defense. I’m extremely proud of Joy Cheek with her 11 rebounds. I thought the game was very physical. There was a lot of bumping going on underneath and she really didn’t get as many free throw attempts as she wanted, but she did have 11 rebounds. So it was a great basketball game, I know it wasn’t a great offensive basketball game but at this point after everything we’ve gone through this week, you just have to gut it out.”
On being asked if she thought her team survived the game:
“Well I just think we did more than just survive, we really handled adversity well. I don’t think a lot
of teams play Connecticut; we did. We had a great game against Virginia Tech and you have to travel and I think we really blossomed as a team in the sense of our toughness. Not everything was going our way out there at all so we had to find a way to make things happen and really focus to remove any distractions. This is what it’s about, this is what the games are about you have to play them. I’m not a fan of rankings or anything like that, I’m just a fan of playing hard.
Duke Junior Guard Jasmine Thomas
“I was really just taking shots that were there, in the first half I forced a lot of things; I over penetrated and passed up a few shots that I thought I should have taken and they were still there in the second half and I made them.”
On being asked if the team could breathe a little easier when they were up by 11:
“No you never relax; they just hit two big threes. Credit to them.”
On what she translated from the first half to the second half:
“Just stayed aggressive.”
