St. John's University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: St. John's 81, Harvard 76
12/1/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 1, 2013
Head coach Joe Tartamella
Opening statement:
"I thought it was a really gutsy performance from our group today. There was a lot that we built upon from Florida but there were a lot of mistakes that we have to get better from. The first half we didn't execute our game plan, as I've told our players many times: let the game plan fail you, don't fail the game plan. I thought we did a better job in the second half of doing that. Aaliyah Lewis and Mallory Jones I thought were fantastic for us and were the difference in the game. Aliyyah Handford doesn't get any more praise from us because she does it every game; she's been really good for us. I was really proud of that effort."
On the Red Storm's chemistry and its 81-76 win over Harvard:
"I feel good about the chemistry with this group. However, like any team, you're always trying to find the right mix. But they all genuinely like each other which is something that's really important for us and it's something that we're striving for in our culture. I think that culture showed in the second half against Florida and it showed in the second half today against Harvard. I think our defensive energy was better and it sparked our run. This is a great win for us, Harvard is a very good team and they have the chance to win the Ivy League."
On the play of freshman guard Aaliyah Lewis and junior forward Mallory Jones:
"Aaliyah Lewis took over the game as a freshman. People are amazed at how small she is but the size of the kid's heart is big and she's a warrior. On a day when Briana Brown, Keylantra Langley and Ashley Perez struggled we look for her and Mallory Jones to step up. It was great to see Mallory come in help us like that which was important coming off a game where she had struggled."
Freshman Guard Aaliyah Lewis
On what sparked her career-high 17 point game:
"I had confidence in myself today. One thing that was going through my mind this game was to stay aggressive and just be smart and to keep getting my teammates involved."
On scoring a career-high in two consecutive games:
"It's just me staying aggressive and being smart. Points don't really matter to me. It's just about getting my teammates involved and the points will come."
On her five steals on the defensive end:
"If I'm putting pressure on the guard it's hard for the opponent to get the ball over half court or start their offense. So my main focus was to just to pressure the point guard and everything else would come together."
On junior forward Mallory Jones being a spark off the bench:
"Mallory had a terrific game coming off the bench, she was actually the spark. Mallory is our shooter and she knocked down a couple of 3-pointers for us that got us back in the game. She also had some big defensive stops, towards the end she drew that charge, so she was a big factor in this game coming off the bench."
Sophomore Guard Aliyyah Handford
On entering the second half with a six-point deficit:
"It's not a good thing. We just have to come out in the first half the way we came out in the second and we'll win the game and won't have to worry about them coming back. We should come out in the first half and play well instead of being sluggish."
On performing better in the second half:
"I think I was doing too much. We came out very slow and I tried to do too much. And by me doing too much it caused a lot of my turnovers."
