March 3, 2006

ACC Women's Basketball Championship
Greensboro, NC
#2 Duke 69, #7 Virginia Tech 56
March 3, 2006

VIRGINIA TECH HOKIES

COACH BETH DUNKENBERGER: Well, you know, I thought we had a much better game against them this time around and a better game plan. For us to win a game like this, we've got to knock down some open shots, some easy open shots early. We've got to stay focused on that defensive end and not have mental breakdowns, and we've got to take better care of the ball. And when we do those things, we'll be able to step up and beat a team of Duke's caliber that's ranked so high in the nation.

Q. Beth, they had 31 turnovers, did you guys feel that you missed an opportunity to beat them tonight?

COACH BETH DUNKENBERGER: I do, and we were forcing turnovers. But we've got to knock down some easy shots. We shot 38 percent, which isn't terrible. But we had an awful lot of layups, especially early on, that would have given us a little bit more confidence and maybe gotten them a little bit more jittery early on.

Q. What happened to Nare (Diawara) in not having her available for much of the second half, how did that affect you?

COACH BETH DUNKENBERGER: Nare was playing really good. What happened, one of those kids had an offensive foul, I'm not sure if it was and elbow or what, but it caught her right here in the corner of her mouth, and her tooth actually went all the way through to the outside, so there was a hole in her mouth. Luckily our team doctor, Doctor (Mike) Sampson was with us, and he was able to stitch it up to stop the bleeding. She was a trooper, she went back in there, but obviously she was in a great deal of pain at that point.

It altered our post substitution. She was having such a great first half, you hate to see her really get knocked out like that.

Q. For either of the players, is there a sense of disappointment knowing that Duke kind of had an off game tonight, that you guys couldn't capitalize on that?

CARRIE MASON: Yes, I think so. Thirty-one turnovers we forced. Like Beth said we missed some layups early which could have given us some confidence and could have changed the whole game. We just have to be able to finish and stay focused and not have mental breakdowns.

DUKE BLUE DEVILS

COACH GAIL GOESTENKORS: I'm just happy to come away with a win. I give Virginia Tech a lot of credit. I thought they played really hard, strong, physical. We knew that they never give up. We had a big lead on them, the first time we played, and they always fight back. So they showed a lot of character I thought. Obviously, I think we were very anxious to play. I can attribute some of that to the turnovers that we had which, you know, is unacceptable. We understand we can't allow that to happen anymore.

But it wasn't just one person, it was everybody. So we talked about it, and I think we were just really anxious to play, and a little overanxious.

We shot the ball well when we got shots off, but turning over 31 times is I don't think I've ever seen that from this team. So I'm a little disappointed with that.

I'm happy to move on, and we know we'll just continue to get better and better.

Q. Gail, the last couple of games you have had some turnover problems, do you see this as any kind of pattern at all or not?

COACH GAIL GOESTENKORS: I hope not, but, obviously we've got to do a better job of taking care of the basketball. So I'm not quite sure why we're turning the ball over more over now. I don't think we're seeing any greater pressure than we're seeing all year long. I just think we're not as focused as we need to be and not make great decisions with the basketball.

Q. For Monique, how did it seem that you just weren't able to get much into an offensive flow tonight, what seemed to be the reasons behind that, the whole team, not just you personally.

MONIQUE CURRIE: Well, I think we just weren't being very smart with the ball. Virginia Tech made us rush a lot, and we were falling into that. We were taking quick shots and not running through our offense, so we were kind of out of sorts throughout the game. I think everyone was. And like Coach G said, I think a lot of people were anxious in trying to do too much instead of letting their offense come to them.

Q. This is for Coach, you had nine players with 10 minutes or more, was that just how things went or were you doing that with the anticipation of hopefully playing three games in three days?

COACH GAIL GOESTENKORS: Well, we feel we've got a good bench, a deep bench. So I wanted to play our depth. When we got some players in foul trouble in the first half, most of our perimeter, I think everybody had two fouls in the first half except Lindsey (Harding). That caused us to go a little bit deeper than maybe I was planning. I think we got good minutes from Carrem Gay. I thought she did a nice job for us.

Q. Mistie, the anxiety level, how do you control that, does it surprise you that that's an issue with this team?

MISTIE WILLIAMS: I knew we were a little bit anxious. Coach said in the locker room that despite how anxious we are, that we need to focus that much more. I don't think we, you know, were successful at doing that. And so, I mean, we just kind of have to learn from this game and move on to the next one and just focus more than being so anxious and ready to play type of thing.

Q. Coach, you don't know who you are going to play yet, but could you say a little something about your games against Maryland and Georgia Tech this year and what you might expect from either one of those?

COACH GAIL GOESTENKORS: Well, we only played Georgia Tech once, it was long ago. It was at their place. It was a battle. They're such a scrappy team. They play match up zone and scramble all over the place. It's really hard to find a rhythm against them because they are so quick. They are very athletic, and they make all of the hustle plays. So they're unique. They probably play a little bit more different than anybody else in the conference. So it's a different style of play.

Maryland, we've had two great games with them. I think in both games, especially the second one, the score was maybe not indicative of the difficulty that we had with them.

So they're a team that scores from all five positions. They've got really a great inside/outside attack, and they just continue to get better and better.

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