St. John’s Postgame Quotes
No. 7 St. John’s vs. No. 10 West Virginia
Game 7 – Second Round, March 5, 2011
XL Center – Hartford, Conn.
Head Coach Kim Barnes Arico
Opening Statement:
“I thought it was a terrific basketball game tonight and I really thought it showed what our league is about. West Virginia has been a top 20 team all year long. I think they are an excellent, excellent team and I just think tonight proves how deep our league is. I thought it was a great win for our program. Usually we struggle against them. The other night we had a tough match up with them, but tonight we battled back and I am glad that we came away with the victory.”
Did you think you could get them to turn the ball over at the rate they did tonight?
“What is funny, is that the other night we forced them into 20 (turnovers) as well, but they pass the ball really well. They had 18 assists to 20, so we knew that our pressure would be able to force them into turnovers. We just felt that we couldn’t turn the ball over nearly as much as we did. They pressured us extremely hard the other night and the last three days we had put a couple of new things in on the offense and worked on handling their pressure. I thought tonight we did a much better job of that. They beat us on the boards the other night by 20 as well. That’s been a focus as well, turning the ball over and rebounding the basketball. I thought we were able to accomplish both of those things tonight.”
Senior Guard Shenneika Smith
How big of a win is this for you guys, in light of next Monday’s selection?
“It was definitely big, not just because of the selection for Monday, just because it is the next game. We came out soft against them at home. It was good that we got a rematch to show that we could really play hard. It was great and I am just happy that we won. We haven’t beaten them since 2006 and I am just excited that I was on this team to be able to beat them.”
Junior Forward Da’Shena Stevens
What did you do differently on the defensive end this game, than the last time you played?
“We wanted to stop Liz Repella. She had a really good game at home when we played them, so it was to come out and shut her down and in the zone to keep being active. I think we really focused on defense tonight. Once we are stopping a team, we can run in transition and basically that is our game. We came out and focused on defense and rebounding to not get blown out.”
West Virginia Postgame Quotes
No. 7 St. John’s vs. No. 10 West Virginia
Game 7 – Second Round, March 5, 2011
XL Center – Hartford, Conn.
Head Coach Mike Carey
Opening Statement:
“Well, things are very simple. Look at points off turnovers and second chance points. We just got out hustled. They wanted it more than we did. We turned it over and they were quicker to the ball. And then second chance points, we gave up offensive rebounds. If you look at those two stats, that’s the difference in the game.”
Senior Guard Sarah Miles
What was the difference between playing them tonight as opposed to Monday, when you beat them by 20 or whatever it was?
“The difference was definitely on our end; they were just more aggressive than we were. I mean, we should have come out more aggressive, but they wanted it more than we did, obviously. That was the difference.”
Sophomore Center Asya Bussie
You have had some good runs as a team and have come back from deficits, do you feel like tonight that run was going to come, but it just didn’t?
“Yea, definitely we thought that run was going to come, but we were just one step behind the whole game and we just couldn’t finish the run we were looking for.”