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BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 11, 2019James HowardDorothy AdomakoChicago, Illinois Marquette - 75, Georgetown 62 JAMES HOWARD: I thought that Marquette made a heck of a run. They were hard to guard tonight, five guards on the floor. It's like you wish Davenport would have played because you can guard them a little different, but when you're playing against five guards who are all pretty much thousand point scorers. They gave us some problem, but I really was impressed with the fight in our players. We got down about 20, we cut it to one in the second half, and then they made another run. Veteran team. They're the 17th ranked team in the country for a reason, but very proud of our young women. Q. Dorothy, I know it's tough after a loss, but how would you reflect on a remarkable time at Georgetown? DOROTHY ADOMAKO: Yeah, it's been great. It's kind of hard to talk right now when I'm kind of down about the loss, but credit to Georgetown. I mean, they gave so much to me, and I really wanted to give back to them and take us to the finals, but we couldn't do it. But credit to the girls, as well. We never gave up, and we kept fighting and we kept playing tonight. Q. How about yourself? Can you give yourself some credit, too? DOROTHY ADOMAKO: Yeah, it's been an awesome career. I really enjoyed playing here. I was lucky enough to get five years, and I'm really going to miss it. Q. What do you think stands out about this Marquette team and just the way that they've matured? You've seen them through the years, as well. DOROTHY ADOMAKO: Yeah, I remember freshman year they weren't as good, and then they exploded, and now they're a really good team. But we stayed on them tonight, and we kept fighting, and that's what really matters. Q. Even though it wasn't the result you wanted, how much did that fight that you showed -- you were down 20 at one point in the second quarter, you cut it all the way down to six at the half. How much did that fight kind of illustrate what you and Dionna have done with this program? DOROTHY ADOMAKO: Yeah, being seniors and being the leaders, we just couldn't give up. We had to leave it all on the court. It's our last game playing here in Chicago, so we really had to go out there and just leave it out there on the court. Q. How tough is it to guard Marquette when they're running such an up tempo offense and kind of keeping up with them? DOROTHY ADOMAKO: Like I said, they're a really good team, and we just have to -- if you miss a play, they're going to come back and just shoot the ball or get a rebound, so we've just got to stay locked in. Q. Big runs by each team at certain points in this game. For your team offensively in those runs, what did you see that you were doing well? JAMES HOWARD: I thought we started to move the ball well, and then we were able to get downhill and get to the basket and get some easier looks. I thought we were playing with more effort when we got back, and you can see like the tempo changed in the game. For us we were excited again, we got that bounce back. That's what carries us. When we're playing like that, you're excited, but you get back and then you see a good Marquette team respond. You know, we took the first punch, and again, we were able to come back for a while, and I thought we threw it in the second half and got it back to one, and then a good team, they stood right back up and they punched again, and we just couldn't recover from that one. Q. Dorothy had 27 points tonight. What has she meant to your program and how do you think she did tonight? JAMES HOWARD: Dorothy has been a big plus to Georgetown. She's phenomenal in just how she carries herself, her work ethic. Not having her last year, it hurt us all. But she came back this year and she was able to help her team this year get back to a semifinal. So you know, for the four years that she's been at Georgetown, and she's in the grad school now and working on her Master's Degree, as she said, Georgetown has given her a lot, and she has given Georgetown a lot. Q. One of the seniors we haven't talked about is Mikayla Venson. When she came off the floor for the first time you had an exchange with her. What did you say? JAMES HOWARD: At that time I was just saying, thank you for everything you have done for us, because that's a young lady that transferred in that had to fight, adversity and playing in her first year last year, she was a point guard coming from Virginia. We talked to her about moving over on the 2 side and diverting, handling the team and running the team. Mikayla stood up for us this year. During these last six games, she really has taken on a whole different approach to say, it's my team and I'm going to distribute and I'm going to get the ball to Dorothy, I'm going to get the ball to Dionna. And she was known as a scorer, but when you're a scorer and you have that leadership and you know in order for your team to win, you're going to distribute that ball to players that you feel as though that can make plays at that time. Hats off to her. And that's all I said: Thank you for everything that you have given over these three years. Q. Coach Howard, talking about players and your team specifically, the fight that this team showed, what are the new standards that they have set for next year? JAMES HOWARD: That's great that you said that because we were just in the locker room talking about the standards. You know, these seniors have set a precedent that we've gone to two back-to-back semifinals. So when you look back, you have built a culture that we expect each year to be in the semifinal game. Now, for the young players, the work now begins. So yes, they have raised the bar of how we coach, how we play, and the respect level that we have put back in the program. So that's hard. It's hard to swallow because you've got three good ones leaving. But we'll get back to work and we'll figure out a way to try to get back here next year. But we're not going to stay in the semifinal for long. We want to get to the championship. Q. You've had more success against Marquette than most teams; what have you guys done differently than other teams to be able to win one and be close in a lot of others? JAMES HOWARD: Yeah, I think we have kind of knocked them off balance. You know, they're a transition team. They like to get back. They like to push tempo. They like to score in the 90s. We drop four back when you're playing that type of team and we try to slow down their break points. Today they were able to get penetration and points off of lane lines. In the past we have been able to slow that down, and that's where a lot of it came from. I think they ended up hitting 12 threes, and most of them was in the first half. They shot lights out, and if you can keep them in front of you, now you negate all the athleticism. And we weren't able to do that in the second half. We were able to do it for runs, and then here they come downhill again, and they got to the rim, and they're very skilled in finishing. That hurt us. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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