St. John's University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: St. John's 70, Providence 49
2/8/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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Feb. 8, 2015
Head coach Joe Tartamella
Opening Statement:
"This was a much needed win for us. We talk a lot about our next game always being the most important, but this one probably had a little more meaning because of where we've come from in the last couple of days. I thought we played well in long spurts for the first time in three games and we did the things that created our identify over the year. I thought we defended better today, we didn't give up the three, we rebounded and got to the line, all the things we talked about doing well. It's a lot more fun to play the way we did today, and to watch it as well. As a team we were together and we had some great performances from the players that have carried us and will continue to carry us. I hope that this is the springboard as we move forward into our last six or seven regular-season games and get ready for the conference tournament. We want to make sure we are peaking at the right time. You always have these lulls in the season, and we hope that we've learned from it and we can move forward."
On the Red Storm bouncing back from Friday's loss to Creighton:
"You have to put it behind you right away, especially if it's a loss. We did make sure that we took time yesterday to watch what we did Friday, probably more than we spent preparing for today, which helped us. It was important for our team to look internally. We've got players who fight. That's one of the biggest things that comes up when I talk to people about our program. They love how our players fight and battle. We have players that will never really give up."
On the role of the Red Storm's experienced players:
"Our players who are juniors, like Aliyyah and Danaejah, and our senior in Amber, they have to be able to keep things together and set the right tone for our team. We forgot about that in our last three games and I hope that we don't forget about it ever again. This was the first time in three games that I was able to look down and see our three main guys do what they had been doing for 12 or 13 games out of the year. I was very proud of that point. It gave our younger players a chance to see more action which I was also happy about."
Junior guard Danaejah Grant
On the Red Storm's defensive performance:
"We just had to get back to what we're known for. Defensively we had to dig in today. We kind of got away from what we're good at and I think that's why we fell short these last couple of games. Hopefully locking down defensively and getting back to what we know can be the start of this run we need to make."
On the play of sophomore point guard Aaliyah Lewis (career-high 10 assists):
"As much as Aliyyah [Handford] and I play a big part on our team, [Aaliyah Lewis] is the motor for us. When she's having a good game it makes it a lot easier for us to be able to operate. She is our main distributor of the ball and that's something we need from her on a regular basis. When's she's engaged it makes things a lot easier for the whole team."
Junior guard Aliyyah Handford
On the Red Storm bouncing back following Friday's loss to Creighton:
"It was a lot of fun playing today, especially coming off of Friday's loss. Everybody was rebounding, getting after it, so that was a great thing to see."
