Jan. 17, 2012

Recap | Box Score | AP Gallery media-icon-photogallery.gif | ND Gallery media-icon-photogallery.gif

Notre Dame Head Coach Muffet McGraw

On the team’s play tonight…
“I thought that was a great game. It’s going to be hard for even me to find something to complain about. It was a great night to see the offense start to flow. We shot the ball well. We had 33 assists and nine turnovers. There were some amazing numbers on the offensive side. Defensively, we did a good job. We can always get better at some things, but overall, it was a great night.”

On what she was most pleased about…
“It was a combination of things. I was really pleased with the bench. Markisha [Wright] and Kaila Turner in particular played well, as did Whitney Holloway. I felt that everyone that came in contributed in some way, and we kept the intensity up. Sometimes when you get a big lead, you sometimes worry about that. We’ve had games we’re we’ve struggled to score late in the game. We kept the focus on defense too. It was a great team win.”

On an almost equal amount of points and turnovers in the first half…
“We worked on our zone offense, and we got some great looks. We did exactly what we worked on in practice. I was really pleased with that. Posts were passing well to each other. Skylar [Diggings] did a great job at the point setting every body up. It seemed that everything was working for us, no matter what we ran.”

On Skylar Diggins’ play…
“She has a level of vision and court sense. She knows what to run and who to look for. She can find the mismatch and push the ball. She can see the entire floor while running the floor with someone guarding her. She has success distributing the ball and throws the ball exactly where she needs to. She makes it so easy for the post to score because she gets it to them exactly where they want it.”

On the team’s free throw shooting improvement…
“We’ve been shooting it well lately. We are definitely focused on the foul line. We’re not doing anything differently from when we weren’t shooting as well. We just have really good shooters on our team. I expect them to shoot around 80 percent.”

Notre Dame Player Quotes

Skylar Diggins – Junior – Guard

On her improvement with assists…
“I always like to find my teammates. We play well off each other. We scrimmage a lot in practice, so I get a lot of time playing with them in practice. I’ve learned to read them, so I know where they’re going to go. Even when we just play on a fast break, I know people’s tendencies, particularly with the post players.”

On being on an emotional high with the team’s current level of play…
“We have to keep the focus up and try not to get too high. We take it one opponent at a time and just try to get better each day in practice. Without having practice players, we’ve been going at each other, which I think is good for us. It helps us to go up against some of the best players in the country on our team.”

On having zero turnovers…
“It was a good day. It is so easy to play with these girls because everyone wants the ball. We’ve got guards that can score and posts that will go to the basket. It’s them too, and I’m just finding them right now.”

Devereaux Peters – Senior – Forward

On her rebounding effort…
“Coach [Muffet McGraw] has really been on us about rebounding lately. I don’t think I really contributed that much. It makes it a lot easier when everybody boxes out and goes after the rebounds. I feel the starts are really starting to show our improvement in that area.”

On taking advantage of her talents…
“I just run the floor, and Skylar [Diggins] is going to find me because she knows where I’m going to go. The guards do a great job of finding me. I really just run down the floor, and they get me the ball.”

On scoring 20 points in 18 minutes…
“I’m not really big into getting a bunch of points. There are plenty of people on the team who are scorers. When I have big nights, that’s great, but I don’t focus on it.”

Pittsburgh Head Coach Agnus Berenato

Opening Statement…
“Notre Dame is a really great team. I thought they played exceptionally well tonight, and we did not play even half as well. My sincerest congratulations go to Muffet McGraw and her being in the Naismith Hall of Fame. I told her before the game that she got one for all of us in south Jersey and Philadelphia. She’s one of the girls, I’m one of the girls, and we grew up together. She did it for all of us. When you look up and see that banner that Notre Dame bestowed upon her, I’m just so happy for her because she is reaping success. Notre Dame played in the purest form. They didn’t play above the rim, but they really executed the way offenses are supposed to be run. They nailed their three’s and they were on from the start. When you shoot over 60 percent for the game, it’s pretty impressive. Everything went right for them. I’m happy my team played against Notre Dame and the No. 2 team in the nation. I’m proud to be a part of the same conference, and I was very impressed with their team. They’re even more impressive in person than on film.”

On Notre Dame’s biggest strength…
“I thought it was their shooting that gave us the most trouble. They didn’t miss tonight. We have the youngest team in the nation, and our kids were a little starstruck. But at the same time, I would rather have my team come here starstruck than to go play somewhere else that is meaningless. We want to strive to be at the level Notre Dame is at. It’s just a matter of confidence, and I thought they had tremendous confidence tonight.”