St. John's University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: St. John's 77, Butler 52
2/19/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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Feb. 19, 2014
St. John's Head Coach Steve Lavin
Opening Statement:
"I thought we played better in the second half and I was pleased that we were able to get the win. We now move forward with our focus turning to Villanova. I thought in the first half Butler beat us to the punch in every aspect of play. I didn't think we came out with the appropriate sense of urgency or the sharpness that we would prefer. It just seemed like we were in one of those day-late, dollar-short, going-in-the-wrong-direction scenarios for the first 20 minutes. But we were better in the second half."
On Butler:
"Butler has played everyone in this league tough, but they don't have the margin for error that they had in years past and so they have to play a near flawless game to win. I give them credit because they are smart, cohesive and they compete their fannies off as a basketball team. We reminded our team before the game they have players that have been to Final Fours, and Butler is a program that goes to the NCAA Tournament on a regular basis.
On the improved play in the second half:
"I think everyone played with a greater sense of urgency. We challenged the group to step up. We seemed flat and we were not sharp or crisp in our approach to anything we did. Every aspect of play in the first half they beat us to the punch and I thought in the second half we turned the tables on them. It was a tale of two halves and we were fortunate to win going away."
Sophomore Forward JaKarr Sampson
On playing without Chris Obekpa:
"We kept the same mindset and we wanted to be aggressive. We were still going to rebound, play defense and let our defense create our offense, but whenever your leading shot blocker and leader on defense is out, you know there is going to be some change. We came out there the same way mentally, nothing was different."
On limiting Butler's Khyle Marshall in the second half:
"At the half we saw that he had 16 points and seven rebounds and that's normally stats you have for a whole game. We knew we had to come out and shut him down and just play better altogether."
On the team's mentality coming out of the locker room down 33-30:
"At halftime, we said that we worked too hard to get ourselves into this position, to be third in the BIG EAST. We worked too hard to let this slip away. We came out more aggressive and with more energy than we did in the first half."
Junior Guard Jamal Branch
On his performance:
"I was just trying to get my teammates involved doing what I'm supposed to do. Guards are supposed to get their teammates involved, get guys in the right position to score and play defense."
On the second-half turnaround:
"At halftime we told ourselves that we've come so far and we can't let this one slip away. We just have that one-game winning streak mentality."
