St. John's University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: St. John's 77, Seton Hall 76
1/23/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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Jan. 23, 2014
Head Coach Steve Lavin
On his future at St. John's:
"From my first day on the job I've had the greatest possible support a head basketball coach could hope for from the St. John's administration. But I understand that when you're a coach at St. John's - in a major media market - things are going to be written that are not accurate."
"'Dom is as resourceful a basketball player as I've coached. He does some things in terms of improvising and using his ingenuity that help our cause, yet at other times it keeps us on the edge of our seats. The beautiful thing is that he's a great competitor and finds a way to get things done on both ends."
On Jamal Branch:
"He was aggressive and he made good reads for the majority of the time he was on the floor. When he's at his best it gives us a lift. I thought tonight he gave us a lift in that run where we were able to extend and get some breathing room."
On JaKarr Sampson:
"He's had some good practices and has been right at the front of the line in terms of his work ethic and exhibiting a mature approach. Tonight he was more aggressive and instinctive yet made good choices. It was good to see him playing with the confidence that we know he is capable of."
On momentum heading into Butler and Creighton:
"It's good to win because the kids will have the wind at their back as we go on the road, but Butler and Creighton are two of the toughest places to play in America."
Sophomore Forward JaKarr Sampson
On St. John's first BIG EAST victory:
"It definitely feels good. My teammates and I are hyped and excited. It feels good to get the monkey off our back. It's not fun being last place in the BIG EAST and losing five straight BIG EAST games."
On the balanced scoring:
"We had five people in double figures and that's big. Whenever Orlando Sanchez plays well, we are a really good team. When we get him clicking the way he was, we're hard to stop."
On recent struggles closing out games:
"We all know that we sometimes have a hard time closing games. Our decision making down the stretch sometimes isn't the best but our decision-making tonight was pretty good. We gave ourselves a little break because we had a big lead in the last four minutes. We're going to improve everyday and our decision-making is going to get better as we keep playing with each other."
Junior Guard Jamal Branch
On his increase in playing time as of late:
"With the teammates that I have, they trust in me and we trust what the coaching staff does. My teammates help me as soon as I get on the floor telling me to play my game, don't worry about anything, and that's what I do."
On the team's first conference win:
"We needed that win to gain momentum with the next two away games we have. We needed this win and hopefully it will get us over the hump."
On upcoming road games at Butler and Creighton:
"It'll be tough, but as long as we execute and play great defense, Creighton will not shoot like they did against Villanova."
Junior Forward Sir' Dominic Pointer
On his last second inbound pass:
"I was throwing the ball long. We didn't have any timeouts and nobody was open. So I was thinking just lob the ball and hope somebody will grab it or we will play good defense and the ball will get hit out. Luckily, it got hit out of bounds."
On what was going through his mind on the final Seton Hall possession:
"Just stop the ball. Rysheed [Jordan] cut him off and I saw him put the ball behind his back kind of slow. When I saw that I just went for the ball and it worked out."
On the risk of fouling Fuquan Edwin in the closing seconds:
"Of course I was taking a chance, but I felt I had the freedom to do that. He could've picked the ball up and threw it to my guy, but I took the chance and it paid off."
Seton Hall Head Coach Kevin Willard
On tonight's performance:
"I thought we got a little comfortable with the basketball and the turnovers just killed us. Their pressure bothered us a little bit, which I was surprised about, but they played hard."
On the final play:
"Try and get the ball to Sterling [Gibbs] and go. There was a little miscommunication between Fuquan [Edwin] and Sterling in the end, but it should not have come down to that. We had our opportunities and just didn't take advantage."
On the intensity late in the game:
"This is a tough place to play. It was a good crowd that was in to it, but our guys responded. Down 17 and we made a comeback to give a chance to win. I'm proud of the guys' effort."
Seton Hall Junior Forward Patrick Auda
On the team's performance:
"We had 15 turnovers in the first half. We didn't take care of the ball and they got some fast breaks and easy layups so we lost the lead. They came out aggressive and we didn't know what to do and that led to the turnovers."
