St. John's University Athletics
POSTGAME QUOTES: St. John's vs. Seton Hall
2/11/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Recap | Final Stats | USATSI Photo Gallery 
| Photo Gallery
St. John's Head Coach Chris Mullin...
On Tariq Owens' play:
"Tariq always has a huge impact on the game whether he scores or not. I thought that one exchange where he had the block and tipped dunk probably changed the whole complexion of the game, because of his energy and effort. Statistically, it showed up probably more tonight, but he always has a huge impact. He's valuable because I can start him and take him off the bench, and it just adds to our flexibility."
On the Tariq Owens block and put back slam sequence:
"We got off to a slow start offensively, but our defense was there. It brought energy in the building and to our team too. From there our defense picked up its pressure and [started] forcing turnovers."
On the difference between the first matchup against Seton Hall:
"Since the [last Seton Hall] game we've been pretty good. That was probably our worst game of the year. To their credit, they made the adjustments and I think they've played pretty solid basketball since that game. Today, we had good contributions from a lot of people. We ended up getting outrebounded by 12, but I thought overall our post defense was pretty good. Our activity on the boards was good. We fumbled some balls, but we were in the mix and fighting for them."
On defending Angel Delgado:
"He's tough. He's going to figure out a way to get his points and rebounds. You want to focus on him and not let him dominate you, but it's probably as important to not concentrate too much on him and let somebody else get off. I think we did a good job of concentrating on him, but also playing solid on the other players."
On attacking the paint:
"We wanted to attack the paint from the start. Part of our approach today was to get in the paint. They're more position defenders with not lot of shot blockers."
On how the blocks impacted the game:
"There is an emotional factor to that. More importantly, from our standpoint it means that we're helping and that the help defense is there."
On the team's improvement as of late:
"If we play really tough defense, smart and tough, and show some resistance and play unselfish on the offensive end, I think we can play with just about anybody. We've shown we can be dangerous to our opponents and we can be dangerous to ourselves. We just have to make sure we are dangerous to our opponents more often."
Freshman guard Marcus LoVett...
On the team's recent stretch of good play:
"We're taking a step every day. Slowly, we're progressing and that's what we talk about in practice and the coaches stress just trying to get better each and every day in practice."
On the adjustments playing Seton Hall for the second time:
"We just shared the ball. Defensively we stepped up. That was a major [factor]. That's what we talked about in practice; just stepping up as the guards and trying to get as many steals and deflections as we could because we knew that was going to get our team going."
On the offensive approach:
"We have options on how we want to score. We can shoot the three, or we can attack. Coach [Mullin] just really stressed that today. He felt like they couldn't guard us and attacking and find the open man and if not, go to the hole, and score the ball."
On his role in the game:
"I knew coming into this game that I was going to come off [the bench] and bring that spark that we needed for the team so I just tried to do the best I could coming off the bench and getting that spark for us, and it worked out well for us."
On the team's resilience:
"Just staying together as a team, that's a real key, especially when we're down and even when we're up, so that's what we've been doing this whole season, and I believe that it's been working well for us."
Redshirt sophomore forward Tariq Owens...
On the team's performance
"We just tried to come in and do what we had to do to get this win. Last time we played them, we got outrebounded badly, we got kind of bullied, but I felt like we had a complete team effort this time around. We made sure we did what we had to do on the glass and contained."
On his effort in the game:
"I made a conscious decision to try to do everything I could like usual, but I couldn't have done it without my teammates. We had a complete team effort, boxing out and rebounding. The guards coming down and helping to box out freed me up to go and grab more rebounds. It was just a complete team effort."
On the forwards' play against Seton Hall's Angel Delgado:
"[We were] not really trying to prove anything, we were just trying to go out there and compete as a team and as a unit. Delgado's a big guy, so it takes more than one person to box him out, to keep him off the glass, so it's not just one person boxing him out, it's multiple guys. It's a team effort."
On the in-game adjustments against Delgado:
"As a team we just boxed him out, we made sure we got to him. Last time we played them, he made a major impact. He had 20 and 20, so coming into this game it was a major focus in what we had to do."
On the team's resilience:
"We bounce back by sticking together. After a bad game or a loss, you can't go back and change it, so all we can do is get in the gym and prepare for the next one."
Freshman guard Shamorie Ponds...
On his friendly rivalry with Seton Hall's Myles Powell:
"We go way back. It was a big win for us and it was a big win for me because I just wanted to prove my point. Even though they got us, I wanted to get them at least once."
On his adjustments after playing Seton Hall once:
"They had 18 turnovers, and we had eight, so I think the game was won on defense."
On the team's resilience:
"We just stayed together. Through the ups and downs, that's the only way we're going to get better, so we just have to stay together as one."
