St. John's University Athletics
Post Game Quotes: Princeton vs. St. Johns
3/20/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 20, 2010
POSTGAME QUOTES Game 1 - Princeton vs. St. John's - March 20, 2010
ST. JOHN'S RED STORM
HEAD COACH KIM BARNES:
Opening Comment:
I know a big question yesterday was how our team was going to come out after having so much time off, and I think that our team really stepped up and played against a great team really well. We played hard, we played physical and we matched their intensity and exceeded it at times. We did a great job at the defensive end and really took away their strengths. I'm just pleased to be still playing and I know we are excited to be playing on Monday night. But my kids really stepped up and did a great job, and these two young ladies to the left of me were fabulous tonight.
Q: The first five minutes weren't perfect and they were up 3 or 5, what did it say about your kids that they didn't really panic, what did that say about their composure?
A: I think that's one of the biggest strengths of our team all year long. To have freshmen and sophomores that play that way has been pretty unbelievable to me. They shock me at times. I think that's also due to the nonleague schedule and to the conference that we play in. We played at North Carolina, we went up to UCONN, we played Rutgers on the road, we played DePaul on the road and we have been pretty successful in all those games. Even when we lost them we battled to the end. So they are an interesting group, they don't really get jitters too much. Once the ball is tipped up, they just want to play basketball. I think Princeton actually did a great job of offensive rebounding that first five minutes and it really hurt us. It took us a couple minutes to wake up and realize we better start getting to work here or its going to be a really difficult game for us. But then we did, we did turn it up another notch and Shenneika started rebounding, "Coco" came in and did as well, we were able to raise that level which is a great sign for them.
Q: What do you think worked best for you on defense in getting done what needed to get done?
A: We are predominately a man defensive team, so we've spent the past week playing man a lot against their sets, and we felt like we were pretty prepared. They have some great shooters; you didn't really see that tonight, but #23, #40 they are 40% from three point range so that was a concern for us including Niveen (Rasheed) inside. So we spent a lot of time going over their sets. Before the game, I said we're going to mix it up and change some things on them so we're not playing man on them all the time. They're a young group, so maybe they won't adjust to that as well. We tried to play zone on a make and man on a miss and give them a different look every time down or every couple times down the floor. I thought our zone was really effective, and I think that's what took them out of their flow a little bit was our zone.
SOPHOMORE FORWARD Da'Shena Stevens
Q: Was the last twelve minutes of the first half is about as good as your team can play? A: I think so. We wanted to pressure them on defense and get out to the shooters. I think we were able to do that, because they didn't score in double digits in the last couple minutes so that was kind of our game plan.
FRESHMAN GUARD Shenneika Smith
Q: 40 points, 22 second chance points how was it to be that effective underneath and down low to really push the team forward to get the team where it is?
A: I think that second chance is very important to our team because we have so many athletes that could crash the boards so having that many points is a good thing for us. I thought that we really got onto the boards a lot in the first couple minutes of the game getting out rebounded so when we went to the huddle and decided that we were going to rebound it worked out pretty good for our team.
Q: Princeton was saying they felt that they were trying to be as little as they could and they felt that they were effective at doing it. What was said at that point where you guys felt, "Okay, lets turn it up"? What do you guys do to kind of turn the rebounding around and turn the momentum around?
A: We just told each other that we have to match their intensity. They were working really hard, boxing out and trying to get second chances so we figured that if we work just as hard that we will be just as successful, and we did.
