Jan. 9, 2014

Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery

Notre Dame Women’s Basketball
Notre Dame vs. Boston College
January 9, 2014
Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center – Notre Dame, Ind.

Notre Dame Head Coach Muffet McGraw

Opening Statement…
“I was really pleased with the offense today. I felt we moved the ball well, we shot it well and we executed well. We were able to get inside against the zone, and I was just really pleased. I thought Taya (Reimer) had an outstanding game and was really aggressive, something she has been working towards. This was a great game for her and the beginning of some great games coming up down the road. Kayla (McBride) had a great shooting night, really I am pleased that just about everybody who came in the game played well, and the bench was ready. We had good energy coming in, a lot of good stuff.”

On the extended minutes played by the bench…
“As I said after the last game, I felt that I subbed (the bench) out too quickly, and I thought they needed to get a little bit more comfortable. Michaela (Mabrey) responded well today, I thought she came in and, when you hit your first shot I think that bodes well for the rest of the game. Most of them did hit their first shot when they came in the game, so I was pleased with her, thought she had a great game off the bench. Between her and Taya (Reimer), they really gave us some good minutes. I thought Markisha (Wright) played well, I thought Coco (Kristina Nelson) played well, just a lot of good minutes from a lot of different people.”

On attacking Boston College’s zone defense that had keyed its recent seven-game winning streak…
“That’s what we normally do, we like to attack inside first, and we were able to get some easy shots inside. I think the first three or four baskets were inside. A lot of people see zone and think they have to shoot threes, and we like to try to go inside first and then kick it out for threes.”

On the upcoming road stretch, and evaluating Notre Dame’s performances on the road thus far…
“I thought we played really well at Michigan, that was one of our best games of the season. I thought we shot it pretty well, and in the first half really the best offensive half we have had all season, so we were really pleased with that. Michaela (Mabrey) had a really big night that night, too. We played well at Penn State but didn’t really shoot it particularly well, but defensively I was pleased with some of the things we did there. I think that’s the sign of a good team is a team that plays the same home and away, and I don’t think we are there yet. This stretch is really going to show us a lot about how we are going to go the rest of the year.”

Notre Dame Player Quotes

Taya Reimer – Freshman – Forward

On her improved performance from the Clemson game…
“It really starts in practice. Obviously the Clemson game wasn’t great for our entire team. We really focused on working hard and getting that competitive edge in practice. Coach McGraw has been on me to be more aggressive and work on finishing. So I focused on that during practice and carried it over to the game.”

On attacking the Boston College zone…
“That is what we work on in practice. Whenever we work on zone offense we get it to the high post and the middle and then look for the short corner diving and then look inside. That is always what we work on. It just worked for us and that is what we do. Luckily it was working for us tonight.”

On the positives from this game…
“It definitely builds my confidence as I am going in the right direction especially staring in ACC play. Hopefully I can build on it. I feel really good about how everyone played. It was a great team win and everyone had energy. Hopefully we can keep going in this direction.”

Kayla McBride – Senior – Guard

On the early offensive game plan…
“I was just trying to find the gaps in the zone to begin with as we were trying to go inside first and then bring it outside. Jewell Loyd, Madison Cable and Michaela Mabrey were hitting them. It was a good all around game for us.”

On the improved performance from the Clemson game…
“I think we had better energy, intensity and focus coming in. I think we had two pretty good practices this week. We were a lot more energetic and it carried into the game. Defensively and offensively we were just able to execute.”

On energizing a team as a senior leader…
“I think it starts with being competitive in practice and trying to expect the best out of everyone, one through 13. It starts with Natalie Achonwa, Ariel Braker and myself. We have to bring the energy and coming into practice I felt a lot different than coming into Clemson.”

On the upcoming road stretch and playing on the road…
“I think our strength is our depth. We are going to be able to tire teams out offensively and in transition. I think we have to bring that focus every game. Sometimes we get lackadaisical, including myself. I think we need to bring that focus and energy especially on defense because that is what gets our offense going.”

Boston College Head Coach Erik Johnson

Opening Comments…
“I just told the team that we got exposed with a lot of things. I thought that I, from a coaching standpoint, got exposed by Coach McGraw and her staff. They did a better job attacking our zone defense which has been really, really effective the last bunch of games against some really good teams. They attacked us in ways that we had not seen yet that we should have been prepared for a little more. She had a great game plan. Halftime could not come quick enough — we needed to make some adjustments. I thought we were able to make some adjustments and then they readjusted again. We forced them to shoot perimeter shots and they hit 8-out-of-12 threes. We gave up layups in the first half. Again, what they showed was a really solid, well-coached basketball team that scored from the inside, scored from the outside and they defended us very well. I think the biggest thing that we take from a game like this is that we can’t always hold down a really good offense basketball team, we need to be able to counter punch. At the other end of the court, their defensive intensity made us stand around some, we weren’t able to get some of the cuts and some of the screens to open up our shooters. And again, you have to give Notre Dame a ton of credit. They’re good for a reason. They are well coached; their players are experienced and tough. They were very well organized and they handed it to us. I give a ton of credit to Coach McGraw and her staff for all the work that they did.

On defending Notre Dame…
“Starting on the defensive end, we’ve been able to really limit interior scores and we’ve been able to limit layups. We play zone a little bit differently from a lot of people and it’s been really effective and people have not attacked it in the way Notre Dame attacked it today. We were able to force perimeter jump shots against Virginia Tech on Sunday to get them to shoot out of their comfort zone and what Notre Dame did was they got layups. And that’s what we have been able to prevent — layups. Notre Dame is very good at getting interior shots. They are not going to settle for threes. The reason they shoot such a high percentage from three-point range is that they don’t settle. They go get layups, force you to adjust and then the threes that they get are wide open and they shoot a high percentage. They handled their game plan very well and honestly that seven game winning streak we had, Notre Dame wasn’t in it. The credit needs to go to them.