St. John's University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: St. John's 62, Davidson 57
12/21/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 21, 2010
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St. John's Head Coach Steve Lavin
On tonight's game:
"I just talked to the team about the fact that over the course of the season there is going to be nights where you play a game that isn't going to be a thing of beauty for the spectators but you find a way to grind out a win. And I thought tonight was an example of a group of kids that really had the sticktoituvness and the resolve to find a way to get a victory. And that's what impressed me most."
On team's defense during last five minutes:
"We just continue to stress staying in our stance, high hands to contest shoots and to try to prevent Davidson from Window shopping over the top of our defense. Because they're a group of players that play a cohesive brand of basketball that's predicated on spacing and timing and cutting. So we though we had to really crawl in defensively in terms of our ball pressure. And I thought that ultimately was the difference in our game. And I thought at the end of the possession, we were able to put the period at the end of the sentence, as we say, with the rebound. The rebound of a defensive possession is the period at the end of the sentence. And all the hard work often times, goes out the window if you don't clean it up with the boards. And that's where I thought Justin Burrell on the defensive boards was a difference; and D.J. Kennedy on the offensive boards. So the board play at both ends really separated us in the second half."
Senior guard D.J. Kennedy
On bouncing back from two losses:
"Any time you lose two in a row you're just trying to find a way, any way possible to get that W, to get that monkey off your back. That's what we did today. It was a dog fight. Davidson is a well coached team; great team. They could shoot the ball well. But we were just able to fight through it at the end and come away with the W."
On his play:
"I put a lot of pressure on myself and my team expects a lot from me. It took us awhile to get over that game. We felt like we should have won the game being up 21. I just wanted to come out here and respond today and get that W."
On team's defense:
"I feel like our defense was great. Really since the Fordham game we played great defense too, but late in the game we gave up a few open shots, a few three-pointers. I feel like we fed off that game and came out here and played great defense today. That's why it was kind of a low scoring game. We were able to get stops late in the game."
On team's progress:
"I feel like we have a long way to go. We've just showed flashes of it. The great thing is that its still early and we know the potential we can reach."
Senior Forward Justin Burrell
On team's rebounding:
"Coach Dunlap stresses that to us. He's in charge of the bigs and at halftime he really told us we had to get out there and control the boards. And as a senior I already know if you control the boards and you control the paint, you control the game. So we put that in our minds."
On moving past losses:
"It really doesn't show, but playing in the Fordham game we really did some great things that we kind of piggy-backed off of into this game. So if we go on to win the rest of our games, it will have been a great stepping stone for us, but we're past it now."
Senior Forward Justin Brownlee
On his play:
"I just came out and tried to play my hardest and be physical on both the offensive and defensive end."
