Dec. 21, 2014

Recap | Box Score | Notes | USA Today

Notre Dame Head Coach Muffet McGraw

Opening statement…
“After finals, you never really know which way the game is going to go. I thought we did a pretty good job. We shot the ball really well. That was the one thing we could do this week is get some shots up, so, I’m happy with that. I was really excited to have Brianna (Turner) back. It definitely changes the game for us. (She had) five blocks and 19 points – we’ve missed that over the last few of games. (I’m) excited about where we go from here.”

On the return of Turner’s inside game…
“It’s huge. We really wanted to go in. I thought she did a great job being around the basket, being in the right spots on the pick and roll, everything I thought we would be able to look for. (We) probably missed her a few times. I think we probably could have gotten it to her a little more. It gives just a great punch to the offense.”

On having 22 of 25 baskets come in the paint…
“Our game plan was to go inside. We were trying to run a lot of stuff that would get us inside touches. I thought we had an advantage in the post. We didn’t take as many threes and I was happy about that. We were really trying to work the ball, to drive the ball, and get to the free throw line a little bit more. We probably could have done that (get to the free throw line) better, but the game plan was to go inside.”

On Turner playing 30 minutes…
“I wanted to (do that). We want to play her as much as we can right now to make sure that everything’s good – make sure that tomorrow she still feels good. It’s been great having her at practice this week and getting her back into her rhythm.”

Brianna Turner · Freshman · Forward

On how it feels to be back and how her shoulder feels…
“It feels great. At practice this week, it felt good. It felt really great to be back on the court with my team.”

On if it helps to go out and perform well right away…
“It brings a lot of confidence to me that I don’t have to go back scared.”

On how long it took to get into her rhythm…
“I didn’t want to rush anything so I tried to be good defensively and let my offense come as the game went on.”

On blocking shots without picking up fouls…
“I try to have good body control and go for the shot after they release it and not as soon as it comes out of their hands.”

Saint Joseph’s Head Coach Cindy Griffin

On Notre Dame’s defense…
“They’re long, they’re lanky and they have a lot of wingspan, especially with No. 11 [Brianna Turner] and No. 12 [Taya Reimer]. They were able to get some tips and deflections and really disrupt what we were doing. They were able to get some points off of turnovers, and that was a point of emphasis for us today. However, I think our kids played really well. They handled the pressure very well, but we just needed to be a little bit better in that category today.”

On the numerous shot clock violations and blocked shots…
“Well, we wanted to use the clock as much as possible, and we thought that our team is pretty good `late clock.’ Their length did disrupt our post game a little bit. We thought we could get a little bit more with our back to the basket today. But, we needed some more moves to get around them and their length”

On using clock to keep ball out of Notre Dame’s hands…
“They score 80 to 90 points a game and we do not. We are not capable of that. We do not have the depth. I do think we have speed in our starting group, but then getting into the second group we just don’t have what they have on the court. To make it a half court game was something that we needed to do today.”