St. John's University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: St. John's 54, Wagner 34
11/22/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 22, 2011
St. John's Head Coach Kim Barnes Arico
Opening Statement:
"It was a good game for us to bounce back after our recent defeat, and I thought our kids played hard and forced Wagner into a lot of turnovers in the first half. Nadirah [McKenith] has been doing a tremendous job for us on the offensive end, as well as Shenneika [Smith]. I was happy that Shenneika shot the ball a little more tonight. She only had seven rebounds though, and she had six at the half, so I think she became a little less focused in the second half. I'm happy with the output, and we're ready to go to the Bahamas."
On whether tonight's performance met expectations:
"Offensively, we were a little bit of a mess. Tonight could have been an opportunity for a lot of transition points. We didn't finish early on and we didn't execute. For the past two days, we haven't touched the ball on the offensive end, all we've focused on is being a better team defensively. We did a good job of that in the first half, then we got a little relaxed in the second. I wasn't surprised that we weren't crisp on the offensive end, but I knew that was going to happen with what we had been practicing the last couple of days. I was pleased with our effort."
On learning curve of young post players:
"I think with the loss of Da'Shena [Stevens], we lost one of the best inside players in the country, and that was significant blow to us. Amber [Thompson] and Mary [Nwachuku] and all our inside players are really inexperienced. They've never played at this level, they've never gotten the minutes that they're getting now at this level. We always felt if we had Da'Shena in the mix, they would get to learn behind her. Now they're kind of thrown in the fire and having to learn on the job. Tonight we tried to get them the ball early. They've got to get better, and that's something we continue to work on every single day. I think you see signs in both Amber and Mary, but offensively they need to improve. That's an area where we're struggling right now, so we've tried to go to our strengths, with our strengths being our guards, our quickness and our athleticism. So we try to get them to drive it a little bit more, and go inside out. We're going to keep working on it, and the post will continue to improve, and hopefully we get Da'Shena back soon."
Junior Guard Nadirah McKenith
On advantages of non-conference matchups:
"We don't take any team lightly, we need to just come out and work hard. We try and work on things that a BIG EAST opponent might do. We really try to come out, work hard and work on the things that we need to get better at."
On defensive intensity:
"Over the past couple of days, coach stressed our defense and how hard we need to play defense. We just tried to come out tonight and defend, and I think we did a pretty good job of that."
On areas to improve:
"I think we'd be better as a team making more free throws. I missed three free throws, and I just need to get in the gym and shoot more."
Junior Guard Shenneika Smith
On the importance of defensive effort:
"We take a lot of pride in the steals. We've been in practice the last couple of days, and I don't think we worked on anything offensive until this morning. We definitely take pride in the steals, plus it gets us easy points."
On improving rebounding:
"We let a few boards slip out of our hands tonight, so we've really got to take care of the ball. Especially when we get into BIG EAST play, there are a lot of tough opponents, so we have to just grab the ball and secure it."
On importance of bouncing back with a big win:
"It means everything. It gives confidence to everyone in here, and it shows that if we go out and work hard we can get the win, so it means a lot. Every win means a lot, no matter who we play."
Wagner Head Coach Gela Mikalauskas
Overall thoughts on the game:
"St. John's is an excellent team. They are going to do very well in the BIG EAST. They have great athletes. Their defense was excellent. We can't simulate that kind of athleticism in our practices so they really disturbed us on the offensive end to go against their defensive intensity. Nadirah McKenith did an excellent job in getting in our point guards' heads early on. We have two freshmen point guards and their inexperience showed."
On how Wagner prepared for the game:
"We practiced as hard as we could. We stressed going to the boards real hard because we know St. John's is a good rebounding team. We stressed things we could control which was our defense."
