Jan. 22, 2015

Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery

Notre Dame Head Coach Muffet McGraw

Opening Statement…
“We need to understand that it’s not just about winning and losing a game. It’s about how you play, the attitude that you have and the toughness that you show. We just didn’t have any toughness. We had no pride in our defense whatsoever. I was extremely disappointed with the defensive rebounding effort. I thought Taya Reimer did a great job on the defensive glass, but no one else did their job. It was extremely disappointing to watch, and the only reason we won the game is because we outscored them. We looked like that was our mentality that we were just going to try to outscore them, and we are not going to try to stop them, and that is just not acceptable.

On why she thought the team’s effort declined…
“I don’t know what it was. I didn’t think anybody played particularly well. I thought Lindsay (Allen) was off, she didn’t take a shot in the first half and she’s one of our top three scorers and she was just not mentally as sharp as she usually is. I think that coming off two huge games against North Carolina and Tennessee, it’s a lot of emotion, they thought that they were going to win and gave it half the effort.

On being favored in the next few games…
I think it’s up to the leaders on the team to get everybody ready to play. That’s their job, to get everyone ready. We are going to do everything we can do get them ready, but when we leave the locker room that’s up to them. We have got to focus on that, because everyone in this league can beat us.

On the defensive rebounding…
“Like I said earlier, Taya (Reimer) was the only one doing her job. You can’t have one person doing her job, and everyone else watching, and that’s upsetting.”

On Michaela Mabrey
“I thought she played better in the second half. She had a little better effort defensively. I think in the first half they picked on her. They took complete advantage of her in the first half. It looked like their game plan in the first half was to pick on her, and we didn’t have an answer for that, and that was a problem for us.”

Jewell Loyd – Junior – Guard

On the game…
“I think we just need more focus. The whole day, we just need to know what’s coming forward, and we need to communicate better. I think today we didn’t communicate and we definitely weren’t focused.”

On whether the game was a letdown after two ranked teams…
“That’s not an excuse. We have to be ready for every single game, there are no off days.”

On how she adjusts to tighter officiating…
“Instead of driving, I just looked for my pull-up a little bit more. I just read the defense. The refs were doing their job, and we can’t get caught up in that, we just have to do our job. “

Taya Reimer – Sophomore – Forward

On her performance…
“I’m just trying to be aggressive and really focus on rebounding. I’m just trying to do my job, and everyone on the team needs to do their job for us to be successful.”


Georgia Tech Head Coach MaChelle Joseph

Opening statement…
“Well, first of all, I’m just really proud of our team. I thought that for a young team, we came out and we competed. They made runs at us and we were able to keep our composure and fight back and cut the lead to single digits several times throughout the course of the game. And I thought that showed great growth and maturity for a team with no seniors and three upperclassmen in an environment like this. I think Notre Dame is one of the toughest places to play in the ACC because they have such great fans and such a great atmosphere for women’s college basketball. And obviously Notre Dame is a tremendous team. I thought my freshmen did a good job going after their freshmen and causing some foul situations that really helped us in the first half. Obviously Brianna Turner’s one of the best players in the ACC, not just one of the best freshmen. I thought that it’s a different team almost when she’s not in the game. And then it just seemed like we gave up too many easy baskets on some of their on-ball screens that really cost us.”

On starting the game slow…
“There’s no doubt we’ve to get off to a better start when you come into a game like this. You’ve got to really come out and own the first five minutes of the game. But again I am really pleased with our effort. I thought that we battled. Every time that Notre Dame made a run at us, I thought we regained our composure and went back at them.”

On trying to stop Notre Dame’s inside attack…
“Well, they were getting a lot of easy baskets out of their offense. I think their offense is one of the hardest to guard in the ACC. One of the things that we were wanting to do is we were hedging on on-balls and pre-switching it. We were getting caught ball-watching and too tight on the weak side and we gave up too many easy baskets. We made some adjustments in the second half, and I thought we did a little bit of a better job, but it’s one of those things where a veteran team or a team with experience is going to exploit you when you don’t communicate on the defensive end. And I thought at times we got lost.”

On Jewell Loyd taking over the game…
“She had 29 points; it doesn’t even seem like it. She’s a phenomenal player. She makes key shots. When the shot clock’s winding down, she makes difficult shots. Sometimes when they’re struggling to score, she goes and gets the ball and makes a play. And that’s what a great player does. And that’s why she’s one of the best players in the country.”

Aaliyah Whiteside – Junior – Guard/Forward

On being able to keep the game close…
“I thought we really played hard. We didn’t really pay attention to the scoreboard. We just kept playing hard, and I thought we got some key defensive spots that led to some baskets on our end. But we never were able to get it all the way down. They would get a transition bucket or we would turn it over. I think we really played hard. That’s what kept it in the 10-point range.”