St. John's University Athletics
POSTGAME QUOTES: St. John's Women's Basketball vs. Loyola Maryland
St. John’s Head Coach Joe Tartamella
Opening Statement …
“Obviously pleased with our effort tonight. I thought it was our best 40 minutes we have put together, even though we still have many things we need to fix. I thought the energy level was there, I thought we made shots at the clip that we are capable of, which is the difference in how we have been playing. I was pleased with our effort, being able to come back after a long trip and obviously not having a ton of success there, but being able to get back here and go back to work and execute a plan that we put together and just play better in certain areas we tried to fix. Certainly, we have a long way to go in terms of the year and also our ability to improve. I thought the first half set the tone and we were able to continue from there. We had 14 assists at the half, I thought there was better ball movement, better pace. Just pleased with our effort and now we move on to the next one.”
On the message to the team after the Puerto Rico trip…
“Just to play within ourselves and play with a sense of urgency that we need to have every game. Those situations are tough. You don’t go to a tournament to play three games in a row and not win so it becomes harder each game you play. Every game we played there was winnable. We watched film a ton, we broke down possessions we gave away. Today, there was some legitimate thought to the shots we did or did not take, and I was pleased with that. I liked the effort from the offensive side. We struggled to score the ball down there and it was a problem. That doesn’t mean its necessarily going to change, but we were able to execute tonight, especially in transition and their relentlessness rebounding the ball. I told them before the game that we need to we needed to be plus-10 minimum on the boards, it just has to be done, and we did that. We haven’t had 20-plus assists in a game all year, and we shared the ball tonight and that was another key point. Then we needed to guard, and I thought Jillian Archer set the tone early, not only by scoring, so yeah, I was pleased with our effort.”
On Ber’Nyah Mayo’s ability to be a playmaker on offense…
“I think it’s what we need. It’s very simple. If she is going to take 17 shots in a game, its difficult. She might need to because she has that capability [to score]. As I said, when you look at Sky [Owen], she had six assists and no turnovers, Ber’Nyah had seven. That’s 13 between the two of them and that’s how it’s supposed to be.”
On Skye Owen’s development…
Sky is an interesting kid; I think she does a lot of things well. She didn’t get a lot of game minutes [last year], but she got to watch really good players and learn really good habits and leaned what she needed to take from them. So I think she is still trying to figure it out, but I think Sky is interesting because she probably plays better in games than she looks in practice sometimes, and we need both to elevate and she needs to be consistent throughout. She played great [tonight], I’m probably harder on her than most of the players we have because I think she does have a lot of potential to be even better than what she has shown already. But I liked her calmness and poise today and she did a good job offensively.”
St. John’s forward Jillian Archer:
On success with a slim frontcourt…
“The biggest thing is going out there and playing to our strengths. While we might have four guards and myself, there's a lot of emphasis on rebounding and staying true to our defensive principles.”
On the start of the game for the Johnnies…
“It was super exciting just feeding off of the energy of my teammates. Just leaving it all on the floor was not only my mindset but my teammates as well, coming into the game today. Definitely coming off of a not-so-successful last three games, we just wanted to bounce back. Lots of energy and lots of fun. Winning is fun.”
St. John’s guard Unique Drake:
On shots falling for the team…
“It was a good feeling seeing the ball go through the basket again. Practice prepared us for today to make shots so it felt good.”
On the importance of home court advantage…
“You know, we just have to protect the home court at all costs. Getting wins on the home court is always big for us. We just want to always protect our home court.
Opening Statement …
“Obviously pleased with our effort tonight. I thought it was our best 40 minutes we have put together, even though we still have many things we need to fix. I thought the energy level was there, I thought we made shots at the clip that we are capable of, which is the difference in how we have been playing. I was pleased with our effort, being able to come back after a long trip and obviously not having a ton of success there, but being able to get back here and go back to work and execute a plan that we put together and just play better in certain areas we tried to fix. Certainly, we have a long way to go in terms of the year and also our ability to improve. I thought the first half set the tone and we were able to continue from there. We had 14 assists at the half, I thought there was better ball movement, better pace. Just pleased with our effort and now we move on to the next one.”
On the message to the team after the Puerto Rico trip…
“Just to play within ourselves and play with a sense of urgency that we need to have every game. Those situations are tough. You don’t go to a tournament to play three games in a row and not win so it becomes harder each game you play. Every game we played there was winnable. We watched film a ton, we broke down possessions we gave away. Today, there was some legitimate thought to the shots we did or did not take, and I was pleased with that. I liked the effort from the offensive side. We struggled to score the ball down there and it was a problem. That doesn’t mean its necessarily going to change, but we were able to execute tonight, especially in transition and their relentlessness rebounding the ball. I told them before the game that we need to we needed to be plus-10 minimum on the boards, it just has to be done, and we did that. We haven’t had 20-plus assists in a game all year, and we shared the ball tonight and that was another key point. Then we needed to guard, and I thought Jillian Archer set the tone early, not only by scoring, so yeah, I was pleased with our effort.”
On Ber’Nyah Mayo’s ability to be a playmaker on offense…
“I think it’s what we need. It’s very simple. If she is going to take 17 shots in a game, its difficult. She might need to because she has that capability [to score]. As I said, when you look at Sky [Owen], she had six assists and no turnovers, Ber’Nyah had seven. That’s 13 between the two of them and that’s how it’s supposed to be.”
On Skye Owen’s development…
Sky is an interesting kid; I think she does a lot of things well. She didn’t get a lot of game minutes [last year], but she got to watch really good players and learn really good habits and leaned what she needed to take from them. So I think she is still trying to figure it out, but I think Sky is interesting because she probably plays better in games than she looks in practice sometimes, and we need both to elevate and she needs to be consistent throughout. She played great [tonight], I’m probably harder on her than most of the players we have because I think she does have a lot of potential to be even better than what she has shown already. But I liked her calmness and poise today and she did a good job offensively.”
St. John’s forward Jillian Archer:
On success with a slim frontcourt…
“The biggest thing is going out there and playing to our strengths. While we might have four guards and myself, there's a lot of emphasis on rebounding and staying true to our defensive principles.”
On the start of the game for the Johnnies…
“It was super exciting just feeding off of the energy of my teammates. Just leaving it all on the floor was not only my mindset but my teammates as well, coming into the game today. Definitely coming off of a not-so-successful last three games, we just wanted to bounce back. Lots of energy and lots of fun. Winning is fun.”
St. John’s guard Unique Drake:
On shots falling for the team…
“It was a good feeling seeing the ball go through the basket again. Practice prepared us for today to make shots so it felt good.”
On the importance of home court advantage…
“You know, we just have to protect the home court at all costs. Getting wins on the home court is always big for us. We just want to always protect our home court.