St. John's University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
St. John’s Head Coach Joe Tartamella, Alisha Kebbe and Tiana England spoke to the media after Thursday’s win over Yale, 56-52.
St. John’s Head Coach Joe Tartamella…
Opening Remarks:
“I’m proud with the effort to come out with a win when you have some adversity hit. I think something I’ve seen out of this group is that we’ve executed some really good things late in the games. As big as Alisha’s [Kebbe] shot and [Qadashah Hoppie’s] shot at the end of the shot clock, were big at that point in the game. We finally got a couple of deflections that went our way. It was certainly a game that could have gone either way for us and this is a big one to be able to hold here at home. Towards the end, we showed some more poise. I’m just pleased that we were able to come away with a win for as hard as they had to play in this game, it would have been tough to not come away with a W.”
On Kayla Charles:
“Well she’s long and she has size. Obviously we will see where we are at, I don’t know what our situation is, but certainly Kayla has shown flashes of brilliance at times. She can do a lot of good things for us. She’s very athletic, but her role here is to do a better job on the boards and be able to guard, and the scoring will come. The one good thing is that we had her play, earlier in the year, in a bunch of our scrimmages with what you just saw out there. We had a little bit of the experience, but not in this type of a situation. To watch us come together and to be able to finish that way, especially when they tied it after the offensive rebound the way they did, to come back and execute was great to see.”
On Qadashah Hoppie:
“Q makes the ordinary look hard and the hard look ordinary. She has a terrific ability to score the ball and she is continuing to improve. She certainly has no problem and has a good feel for making plays towards the end of games. I have a lot of comfortability in that area, if she does have the ball. Like Alisha [Kebbe] said, that’s a shot we hope she gets over and over again. It’s something she practices all the time. Q has certainly been making big shots. We feel pretty good.”
Junior guard Alisha Kebbe…
On the game-winning shot:
“That’s a shot I work on a lot. I was happy that my teammates were able to make a play to put me in a position to make that shot.
On being a player down:
“When Curteeona [Brelove] went down and Kayla [Charles] got hurt, we had to buckle down, box out and be the best rebounders we can as five guards.”
On Kayla Charles:
“She’s been doing pretty well. She’s a good rebounder and we need that because we don’t have that many bigs. She is definitely a big presence on defense that helps us a lot.”
Sophomore guard Tiana England…
On tonight’s win:
“We knew we had to bounce back. When we were tied, we had to buckle down and rebound.”
On late-game possessions:
I was looking to run the clock down and not make turnovers.”
On Kayla Charles:
“She’s starting to realize what she can do on the court. She is playing a bigger role now that [Curteeona Brelove] is out and I think she is ready for it.”
Opening Remarks:
“I’m proud with the effort to come out with a win when you have some adversity hit. I think something I’ve seen out of this group is that we’ve executed some really good things late in the games. As big as Alisha’s [Kebbe] shot and [Qadashah Hoppie’s] shot at the end of the shot clock, were big at that point in the game. We finally got a couple of deflections that went our way. It was certainly a game that could have gone either way for us and this is a big one to be able to hold here at home. Towards the end, we showed some more poise. I’m just pleased that we were able to come away with a win for as hard as they had to play in this game, it would have been tough to not come away with a W.”
On Kayla Charles:
“Well she’s long and she has size. Obviously we will see where we are at, I don’t know what our situation is, but certainly Kayla has shown flashes of brilliance at times. She can do a lot of good things for us. She’s very athletic, but her role here is to do a better job on the boards and be able to guard, and the scoring will come. The one good thing is that we had her play, earlier in the year, in a bunch of our scrimmages with what you just saw out there. We had a little bit of the experience, but not in this type of a situation. To watch us come together and to be able to finish that way, especially when they tied it after the offensive rebound the way they did, to come back and execute was great to see.”
On Qadashah Hoppie:
“Q makes the ordinary look hard and the hard look ordinary. She has a terrific ability to score the ball and she is continuing to improve. She certainly has no problem and has a good feel for making plays towards the end of games. I have a lot of comfortability in that area, if she does have the ball. Like Alisha [Kebbe] said, that’s a shot we hope she gets over and over again. It’s something she practices all the time. Q has certainly been making big shots. We feel pretty good.”
Junior guard Alisha Kebbe…
On the game-winning shot:
“That’s a shot I work on a lot. I was happy that my teammates were able to make a play to put me in a position to make that shot.
On being a player down:
“When Curteeona [Brelove] went down and Kayla [Charles] got hurt, we had to buckle down, box out and be the best rebounders we can as five guards.”
On Kayla Charles:
“She’s been doing pretty well. She’s a good rebounder and we need that because we don’t have that many bigs. She is definitely a big presence on defense that helps us a lot.”
Sophomore guard Tiana England…
On tonight’s win:
“We knew we had to bounce back. When we were tied, we had to buckle down and rebound.”
On late-game possessions:
I was looking to run the clock down and not make turnovers.”
On Kayla Charles:
“She’s starting to realize what she can do on the court. She is playing a bigger role now that [Curteeona Brelove] is out and I think she is ready for it.”