St. John's University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: St. John's 52, Cincinnati 50
1/13/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 13, 2010
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Head Coach Norm Roberts
Opening Statement:
" I thought it was a typical tough BIG EAST game; two teams struggling to score, two teams defending very well. Our guys really stayed tough at the end of the game and made some huge plays. (Dwight) Hardy stepped in there and made some plays. And the steal with (Justin) Brownlee and D.J. (Kennedy) throwing it out to him (was big). But the whole team stayed strong. I'm really, really happy for our guys."
On Dwight Hardy's play at point guard position:
"We knew that Cincinnati doesn't pressure (intensely) -- so that kind of helped Hardy stay at the point today. When we struggle to score we want to try to keep our best offensive players on the floor."
On team's play in game's final minutes:
"I felt the guys were very confident. We just kept telling them, 'Make a play. If we get a stop here, this is how we're going to set up our press. Don't foul them.' And guys executed very well."
On significance of the win:
"Every time you win at the Garden, it's awesome. Every time you win a BIG EAST game, it's awesome. Because it's hard, it's very, very hard. And I kept telling my team that we're going to have to grind out a win. We're going to have to grind it out to get confident in what we're doing. Because we're really, really close. We were really close in a lot of games, except for one. So I'm really happy that we were able to get the victory today."
On play of guards Paris Horne and Dwight Hardy:
"Paris Horne has had great nights and defensively, he did some great things today for our team. Everybody has a role and Hardy knows his role is to come in and score and be aggressive. And he did that tonight."
Cincinnati Head Coach Mick Cronin
On the end of the game:
"We ran a play out of the timeout to get Lance (Stephenson) the ball off the double screen and we looked him off. Actually we weren't looking for him and by the time we looked at him he wasn't open and obviously had the turnover. Still in that situation, we are up two with 10 seconds to play, we had a timeout and our best in-bounder (Rashad Bishop) and we had our senior captains on screen and roll back. His (Deonta Vaughn) decision to go long was bad and the decision to throw the ball was even worst. It is not even a play we practice. Mental breakdowns…young kids, they don't mean to do it. (It was a) tough loss because wins are so hard to come by in BIG EAST basketball. We gave the game away. You have to give St. John's credit, their kids didn't quit for the bulk of the game.">
On tonight's game:
"What we have to do, in the last 10 seconds, is not blow the game. They are a good team, they have good players and are in a must win situation. We met the challenge and had the game won. I am not going to act like the sky is falling. We had the game won. There are a lot of positives except the last 10 seconds."
Cincinnati freshman Lance Stephenson
On tonight's game:
"It is a tough game. I wasn't expecting it to be this tough. At the end we made a bad decision. We have to worry about the next game, get to practice, get focused and win the next game."
On St. John's defense:
"Their defense…they gave us a lot of pressure the whole game. We just weren't prepared for that."
