St. John's University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: St. John's 64, Army 56
3/19/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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March 19, 2015
Head Coach Joe Tartamella
Opening Statement:
"I'm proud of the fact that we were able to push through and get a postseason win. I told our players that when you get into the postseason - whether its conference tournament play, NCAA or WNIT - these are the games in which you make your name. I'm proud of the way we were able to gut through this game where you can easily just let it go and maybe have a little bit of a letdown from not getting into the NCAA Tournament. Now we live on to go to our next game. I'm proud of our team."
On the play of point guard Aaliyah Lewis:
"She was terrific. This was something that we needed from her. If she can do this, or even something close to this, on a nightly basis, we become a very different team. We become more dangerous because now you have to account for her. She has a lot on her plate. She has to guard the best player a lot of times and she has to run our team. That's a lot for a kid. I'm happy for her and I hope she can carry this to the next round. If she does we become a lot more dangerous."
On the importance of St. John's playing in the postseason:
"These are important games for everybody on our team. It's important to put them in these situations and see how they are going to react, having that pressure of having to win or go home. I've been coaching for a while now and being in the postseason it never gets old. You can't take it for granted. I tell the team everyday that if they think it's easy going to five straight NCAA Tournaments, it's not. If that hunger and desire isn't there, our league will eat you up and the non-conference will eat you up. You have to want it every single year. That's what I'm most proud of being here for this period of time. It hasn't been one year. It's been an extended run that we will continue. We're going to have change but we're going to get better and move forward. We have to get ready for our next one now, that's the biggest thing."
Junior Guard Danaejah Grant
On the motivation behind advancing in the WNIT:
"I feel like if we make a run in the WNIT it'll show that maybe we should've been in the NCAA Tournament. We're grateful to be playing right now. A lot of teams are sitting home not able to play, so just to have the opportunity right now is big for us."
On the team bringing the right energy and focus to tonight's game:
"I think we continued what we did in practice this week. We're just grateful to be playing right now. Whether it's the NCAA Tournament or the WNIT, we don't want to go out. We want to play hard and keep the same integrity we've had all year."
Sophomore Guard Aaliyah Lewis
On her individual performance and scoring a career-high 20 points:
"I absolutely was [locked in]. I was actually surprised that they played us how every other team played us during the year. All their focus was on stopping Aliyyah [Handford] and Danaejah [Grant] which allowed me to find cutting lanes. My teammates were looking for me and hitting me on those cuts which got me going."
