Dec. 22, 2013

Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery

Notre Dame Head Coach Muffet McGraw

Opening Statement…
“Well that was some phenomenal offense on both sides of the floor. I thought [Crystal] Bradford had an outstanding game. She is a great player and a very difficult matchup for us, and I was really disappointed with the rebounding. We’ve done so well all year long and to get outrebounded and give up 20 offensive rebounds…it was a nice Christmas present we gave them. We really didn’t want to be doing that, and I was not very happy with that.”

On Jewell Loyd…
“I thought Jewell Loyd was amazing. Some of the shots she made she got out in transition and was very effective doing so. She played just like she did in practice, and I was very happy to see that because her effort was tremendous and her efficiency was outstanding. It was just a fabulous game for her. You can’t really guard her one-on-one. She is pretty much unstoppable. She can score in transition and coming off ball screens, she was really deadly today. I thought her shot selection was excellent and took a lot of good shots. When you go 12 for 15 you can’t really complain. It was a fabulous display.”

On Michaela Mabrey…
“She is doing her job: coming in and making her threes. I was really happy with her and the offense.”

On Jewell Loyd’s progress…
“I think she is a little more aggressive with her shot selection. Last year at times with Skylar [Diggins] and [Kayla] McBride she was a little bit more reserved offensively and I think now she is seeing that we need her and an explosion like that. She is capable and I think that she is really playing to her potential. I love where she is because she is really getting comfortable and gaining confidence. She is doing the right things and is very smart. She can score around the basket, put the ball on the floor. She really sees the floor, and I am just really pleased with where she is at, at this point.”

On the program’s 800th win…
“It is great for Notre Dame basketball, and we have put ourselves in a position to have the success we have had. We have really built this program with so many great players and people that have come through here that have helped us. The assistant coaches and the fans–it takes a lot of people to really make the program. And all the support staff and the people that we have around us have just done a fantastic job on getting us here. I am really proud of that.”

Notre Dame Player Quotes

Michaela Mabrey – Sophomore – Guard

On her development in the offseason to get the minutes that she’s playing…
“Over the summer, I just got back in shape and worked on basically my defense. I know I shoot the ball well, and I wanted to do other things. Through our offense, I’m always going to get shots, but I tried to develop everything else over the summer and through preseason, and that just comes with confidence. I really feel like my confidence has grown from the preseason and summer to now.”

On difference between college and high school…
“College is completely different than high school. High school you can get whatever you want, when you want; college is totally different.”

On her three-point shooting the past two games…
“They both play zone, so that helps. But I think I’ve been getting to the gym more, especially last week leading up to finals I didn’t really have that much to do, so I got in and got a lot of shots. So I think it’s just getting shots up and reaching the point where I’m really confident to shoot the ball.”

Jewell Loyd – Sophomore – Guard

On her confidence level this year…
“It definitely helps when you have teammates telling you to shoot and you practice how you play, and I just think the momentum from yesterday’s practice carried over to the game. And when you have the belief of your coaches and team it helps a lot.”

On how she has grown from last year…
“Being better on my shot selection, getting stronger around the basket–I’m still working on that, but just reading the defense and playing off of that too.”

On her high shooting percentage…
“It’s definitely exciting and fun. Personally I think the best play of the game was my assist to Michaela for that three. But, personally I think it was fun and I play better when my brother is in the gym, that definitely gives me confidence, and he was there today so I’ll give some credit to him. It’s nice looking over and seeing him there encouraging me.”

Central Michigan Head Coach Sue Guevara

Opening Statement…
“I just told Crystal [Bradford], she asked me, `What do you say?’, to just tell the truth. Notre Dame is at another level. They’re at another level than where we are right now and they have a lot of weapons. Their transition is really good offensively. We knew stopping them in transition and hopefully being able to keep them off the boards would be our only chance to maybe hang in and they just took it down our throats. We had three people back and they just took it down our throats. Their three-point shooters shot the ball well. We got [Natalie] Achonwa in foul trouble and they just brought another big one in. I give them all the credit in the world. I vote top-25, and I know they are in the top four. We lost to a really good basketball team, and I’m glad we’re not playing them again. We will just have to regroup after Christmas and get ready for Purdue.”

On transitioning to the time difference…
“I thought that our three-point shooters were very intimidated today. Everyone knows that we have two kids, [Niki] Diguilio and [Kerby] Tamm, that can flat out shoot the three ball. Notre Dame was flying out at them and there’s a very simple thing you can do– that would be a shot fake. We just could never get them going. I told Crystal after the game that she can’t play the game by herself. We have to have a little bit more `dog’ in us. We need a little bit more `dog’ in some of our players. But, I tell you what, it’s Notre Dame. And they’re pretty damn good. Tamm and Diguilio, they’ll get it. Our next game we play Purdue and they’ll get that back. We just have to keep their confidence because they are really good shooters. I give Notre Dame credit.”