St. John's University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: St. John's 63, Howard 48
11/30/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 30, 2011
St. John's Head Coach Kim Barnes Arico
Opening Statement:
"It was an ugly game, but I was anticipating that a little bit since we just got back from the Bahamas trip and it's been an emotional few days for us. We're also playing without another one of our starting players [Mary Nwachukwu] so that's another bump in the road that we've had to deal with and it showed in the first half for sure. But, we really rallied, hung in there, and played a lot better in the second half. Eugeneia McPherson did a really nice job of picking us up when we needed someone to score. Obviously, I'm happy with the result, but we've got to continue to improve and get ready for our next game."
On what she told the team at halftime:
"It's easy to get negative and one of the most important things in dealing with the team's inexperience and youth is keeping them positive. We've had some stumbling blocks with playing without a starter and coming off of this emotional trip. So much of their game is based off of their confidence. With young kids, their confidence gets shaken and we had our confidence shaken a little in the first half. But, I knew once we got back into our flow, we'd be okay. I was upset at the half and I told them that, but it was more predicated on our effort. If we really played hard on the defensive end and really pushed the ball on the offensive end, we'd be fine - we just needed to get out of the sluggish mode. I tried to motivate them a little bit at halftime because they just needed a spark to get going. They found that in the second half."
On winning without a full roster:
"This can hopefully be the strength of our team in the long run and that's what I keep preaching to them. If we just keep chipping away and trying to improve, we might not have immediate success with the kind of losses that we've had so early in terms of our personnel. But with all the turmoil we've been through, if we keep improving and get all those pieces back healthy, we can finish the year reaching our goals."
Junior Guard Eugeneia McPherson
On what making consecutive baskets does to her game:
"I get more confident and confidence is a big key to my game. If I don't have any confidence, my game struggles. My jump shot hasn't been falling since the beginning of the season, but I'm still working on it so hopefully I'll improve. One of my strengths is going to the basket and teams are going to start sagging on us so my teammates will just have to step up and start knocking down shots."
On supporting teammate Mary Nwachukwu after the loss of her father:
"We are a family. When we got the news about Mary's father, we felt like it was a loss for the rest of us too, especially after seeing Mary so emotional. But we stepped it up and became one as we always are and we put it together down in the Bahamas. We had Mary's back and got the win for her."
Head Coach Niki Reid Geckeler
On the game:
"I felt like we played half of a game. I have to give credit to St. John's. They turned it up defensively and gave us some problems. When we get leads we have to learn how to keep leads. We have to play 40 full minutes of basketball from beginning to end and begin to key in on the key players of our opponents in the second half. I thought our defensive intensity and our offensive execution was good in the first half. I think if we play how we did in the first half in every game we would be in a good position going forward."
