St. John's University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: St. John's 63, Connecticut 84
1/21/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
St. John???s Head Coach Kim Barnes Arico
On today???s game:
???Connecticut is a terrific team. I am hoping, if it is not us, that they win the National Championship. For us, to come out and represent the program the way we did tonight, I was really proud of the ladies. When Connecticut made some runs, we hung in there, we fought back, we hung tough. It has been a difficult year for us. We have had a lot of ups and downs. We have had a lot of injuries. The one thing I can say I am most proud of is that we haven???t given up yet.???
On Monique McLean and Kia Wright:
???These two young ladies do a fabulous job for us. Monique has played multiple positions this year that she has never played before in her life. Now that we have Kia back we feel like we are really making great strides. Our goal right now is to make the Big East tournament because once we get there we feel like we can be like West Virginia of last year.???
On the team rebounding:
???I thought we did a great job of rebounding. We need to get better taking care of the ball. That is tough for us, but we have been improving on that.???
On Mel Thomas:
???We have been playing a lot of zone and we felt like our zone was getting better. The thing with her is that she is so good that if you don???t key on her and know where she is on every possession she can kill you with a three and that is what she did. Every time we had a lapse she took advantage of it. She did a great job.???
Senior Guard Kia Wright
On scoring 1,000 career points:
???It feels good to get the 1,000th (mark) here but it would have been good to get the win.???
Sophomore Guard Monique McLean
On Kia Wright returning to the team:
???It takes a lot of pressure off of me. Playing the point guard position was very hard.???
University of Connecticut Head Coach Geno Auriemma
On today???s game:
???I am disappointed we weren???t able to sustain it for the whole 40 minutes. Sometimes when you get a big lead in the first half, you are not careful. You start to get sloppy and get careless. I thought the last six or seven minutes were careless and sloppy. The first four or five minutes of the second half we were just content to trade baskets. I thought for 25 of the 40 minutes we looked like a really good team. For about 15 of those minutes we had trouble guarding St. John???s. Their two guards are pretty good with the ball. I think there was a different energy level or mindset after we got the big lead.???
On playing at Madison Square Garden:
???I just like the whole thing about it. I like the people that work here. They look at you like ???I do this all of the time.??? Men???s, pro???s, women???s. These guys are great down here. I think the people like good basketball. There is no other place like this in the world"
