Quotes: Duke 78, Ohio State 72

Duke Head Coach Joanne P. McCallie

Opening Statement:
"I just really liked our second half [play] and really liked our team's resilience, resolve, fortitude, and toughness. I wasn't too happy about that first half, as you can imagine, from a defensive standpoint and from a rebounding standpoint. I don't think the team was too happy about it either. The neat thing about this game was having the opportunity to really test ourselves. I think being down 14 [points] is a test. I think that's hard; it's hard to come back. I think Joy [Cheek] and her leadership was tremendous. She hit some huge shots for us and kept talking out there and that's very, very important. And her body language, just the way how she communicates confidence like she does. Then I thought Jas[mine Thomas] was cool, calm and focused, understanding what to do at every possession, except for a few not coming back to the ball, but other than that just a terrific game from [Jasmine Thomas], as you know, in being very focused. It was a great game for us, great game to learn from and boy they shot the three [point attempts] well. For sure, give them credit."

On Karima Christmas' strong play in the second half:
"She was mighty, wasn't she? Good God! She really was aggressive and physical. Again, playing multiple positions for us, she's playing different spots at different times for us. She was very physical and she took it in hard. She's got the most incredible pull-up twist, jump thing going and honest to goodness, the touch she has is just fun to watch. I think she fed off her teammates, I think she was excited, I think she was wanting to do her part and I felt like everyone did their part. That's what this game was: a collection of people just sort of settling down and getting the job done and she certainly was a huge lift."

On USC's defense and Duke missing some easy shots:
"I want to say that we were rushing. I mean when you miss paint shots ... we're just rushing. They came out and played tremendous basketball and hit some big shots. They got us on our heels and sometimes when you get on your heels you aren't quite as balanced or focused and I think we had to go through that. They took the first punch and it was important for us to find a way to have the last punch because that was the kind of game it was. A lot of punches were being thrown back and forth and I just think that we rushed. You look at the second half, yeah we're 46 percent [shooting], that's supposedly when we're more tired, but the bottom line is I just think that it's focus. I believe that we could've had that [shooting percentage] in the first half. I do want to give credit to their defense, but I also want to speak that I believe we could've done the same first and second half with our shots."

On Allison Vernerey's tough play today:
"She's a pistol. She's very, very aggressive and she seems to get more aggressive sort of on a daily basis. I love how she demands the ball. In critical situations, she demands the basketball and I think that's part of the fun, being able to do that. I talked about some big shots that Joy [Cheek] hit demanding the ball and then Allison [Vernerey] was demanding the ball, and Jasmine [Thomas] can demand it, but often has it. So, it's just neat to see the different people that were stepping up at different times during the game. But for somebody who's not a big, large gal, she sure plays like she is. She takes up a lot of space, she calls for the ball, she's got high hands and she's pretty quick on her turns, so we're proud of how she's developing."

On USC Head Coach Michael Cooper calling Duke the "deepest" team they've played:
"That's great, we'd like to be the deepest team. I think we're deeper than we were tonight. I think we could have more [production] from folks. I know B[ridgette Mitchell] was playing hard, she was doing some great things out there. But you know Shay [Selby] is showing to do some things, I know Kathleen Scheer can do some things and Chelsea [Hopkins] helped us out as well, so I think we can become an even deeper team. That's something to strive for because I think that matters down the stretch."

Southern California Head Coach Michael Cooper

Opening Statement:
"What a basketball game. In coming into this particular game, I was very interested in seeing how far we had come as a team and obviously being tested by one of the national powerhouses in women's basketball. I thought we held our own. I took a little bit of responsibility for the loss tonight by getting a technical [foul], but again I tip my hat to our players. We played extremely well on the road and you have to tip your hat to Duke because they're a very good basketball team."

On the playing of Ashley Corral:
"Ashley [Corral] has done a lot for us. She's actually done more than she's supposed to be doing. I would love to use her at the two spot sometimes, but we have to use her at the one. For her to run things for us and then to get her shot, that's something that we've been working on. As a coach, I'm definitely happy to have her. She's almost like our Magic Johnson, she does a little bit of everything."

On the technical foul he received:
"It was to motivate, but it was a heat of the moment play. If I had to do it over again, I probably wouldn't. But again, it's something that happened. Coaches should never put their players in a predicament, especially when the game is so close. I take a little bit of blame for this, but a lot of it has to go to Duke. They did a tremendous job of fighting their way back and getting a lead and holding on to it."

On the shooting averages of the team:
"We are a basketball team that has to work well as a team. When we run our sets and we execute the way they're supposed to be played, the way this game was supposed to be played, the way Dr. [James] Naismith meant it to be played, we get good shots, and that's what we do. We're not going to cry about our injuries because that's part of this game, but we have players that can execute and who can shoot the ball when they get good openings and that's what we do well."

On his pride for the team in executing against Duke:
"Very proud. We work hard at that. We work hard at our offense and we work hard at our defense. I thought our defense was brilliant. We had a lot of tricks and gimmicks going because this team is very good and because of their size on the inside, but I thought we neutralized them a lot. [Allison] Vernerey we did a good job on. She's been doing a lot of damage, especially in the Ohio State game and we wanted to limit her. Krystal Thomas ... I thought we did a good job by double teaming her. Our defense had a lot to do with how this game was played today."

Thoughts on Jasmine Thomas:
"She's a great player. I know during my days with the WNBA, she was a player that was high on our radar and we always looked at her. It was a shame that she was a freshman when we first saw her and then had her knee injury, but she's come back and she's a lot quicker. Ashley [Corral] showed that she can play with the best and she faced one of the best today and held her own against her. She's a tremendous player and she's definitely going to have a great career here in finishing the next year or so at Duke and then when she goes to the professional level, she's going to have an even better career."

Senior, Joy Cheek

On thinking about last year's comeback against USC:
"I didn't think about it at all. In the beginning of the game, we kind of said that, but no, I didn't think about it at all. That was last year, even the Ohio State game we just played is behind you, you just think about the present. So no, I didn't think about that."

On her mindset during the game:
"I think you've just got to stay calm. Having fun is something I think about a lot, because when I have fun, I'm relaxed. And just play hard. We let them shoot too many three's, but you can't get disappointed and yell. I just thought that we could do it; it was a fun game to me the way we went back and forth. But, I just knew we could do it. We talked about will, and I knew that game would take a lot of will when we were down by 14. Like we did it before, I just knew it would take a lot of will. It was a gut-checking game and I think we came through."

On the difference between winning the game against USC and losing against Texas A&M:
"I think it was toughness. Texas A&M gave us a lot of pressure, they made us rush a lot of shots and we weren't really getting anything. We shot terribly. I think this game we tried to get inside more through penetration to the post and getting stops. Yeah, they shot a lot of three's, but we got some stops also, and rebounds. Texas A&M just took us out of our game with their defense."

On how many places she is hurting:
"I'm alright, I'm getting kind of old. I've never been this hurt in my four years. I've had two shoulder surgeries, but that was it. That wasn't an ongoing thing. I've never had an ankle, nose [injury] all in the first eight games. I'm alright though."

Junior Jasmine Thomas

On scoring one point shy of her career high from last game against Ohio State:
"Just playing my game, attacking, taking shots when I'm supposed to. I feel that all my points come within the flow of the game. I never even realize how much I am scoring."

On what goes through her mind when she gets to her free throw line:
"Not being held after practice to shoot extra free throws."

On finding the will power to make the comeback:
"It's a defensive thing. You know that you're only going to come back in the game like that by getting stops. There were a few times where we got stops and we didn't score, but because we continuously kept getting stops, eventually our offense came together, and we got to the line and made free throws. So it was just us having the will and the fight to get some stops on defense and turning that into offense."

USC Point Guard Ashley Corral

On preparation for the team's tough schedule:
"You can't be intimidated by anybody you play. We have a very tough schedule going into PAC-10 but that's going to prepare us for our season and for our league and that's what we need. We need tough games to take us into PAC-10, which is a great conference."

On playing 40 minutes:
"The whole preseason was for me to get ready to play 40 minutes. Like Coach [Cooper] told me the other day, 'All the running you did and all the hard work you put in during the preseason is for you to play 40 minutes now and we need you to do that.' If that's what my team needs me to do, then I'm going to stick with it and keep it going."