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BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2020Megan DuffySelena LottIsabelle SpignolaChicago, Illinois Marquette - 78, St. John's - 55 MEGAN DUFFY: I can't tell you how proud I am of these two sitting next to me and our entire team. A very excited locker room to be coming back tomorrow to be playing for a championship. I thought our defense in the second half was the difference, and just a balanced attack inside. 52 points in the paint is kind of our bread and butter and we were able to execute it, so we're just really thrilled. Q. How much is this team looking forward to playing DePaul in the championship tomorrow? SELENA LOTT: Yeah, for sure, we want to defend the title because they got it the last two years. I mean, we need it. We want it. ISABELLE SPINGOLA: Yeah, four years in a row, like Selena said, get the chip back, and then obviously we had a good game against them last week, so obviously just looking to do that again. Q. Isabelle, obviously you are a Chicago person, so you know the history and tradition of Coach Bruno. Now you've had to go against them for four years. Talk about the progression from you as a player and with the program from a freshman to you being a senior and those battles and facing DePaul one more time. ISABELLE SPINGOLA: Yeah, I mean, it's been a good four years. I think obviously I've grown a lot as a player, and then just playing against DePaul, it's a great rivalry for us. They play a fast speed, and I just think for us as a team tomorrow, we just need to come ready to play. Q. What was the talk like in the locker room after the game? SELENA LOTT: Just emotions. We all came in there screaming, clapping. We do our little chant, our little -- I don't know, our fight song. And then we all bring it in and she just tells us what we did good and what we need to improve on. ISABELLE SPINGOLA: We're just ready to go. Like we're pumped right now. We're so ready to go to the championship. It's huge for us. MEGAN DUFFY: They're at a loss for words. I never would have thought those two would be at a loss for words. Q. Talk about what it's like coming back from a game last night where you shot 3-for-11 from the field. ISABELLE SPINGOLA: I just think like staying in the present, not like taking a miss too hard, just getting into my shot and then for the rebounds just playing hard, playing my game and just doing what I need to do in order for the team to win. Q. What will it be like tomorrow for you playing in your final Big East Tournament? ISABELLE SPINGOLA: For me and Tia, yeah, it's going to be really exciting for us. Obviously once again we had a long four years together, we had a good senior night. Yeah, we're ready to go. Q. Can you speak to the play of this league? It's been such a tight tournament. Speak to the competitiveness of this league. SELENA LOTT: Yeah, it my opinion I think this conference is the best conference, and all the coaches recruit good players, so it's going to be a tough competition between all teams. It's honestly who shows up that night and who wants to win. ISABELLE SPINGOLA: Yeah, bouncing off that, Big East, great conference. Every team, like good players, good competition, everybody comes ready to play, so it's just like Selena said, who wants to give more on that one night. Q. Tell me about your relationship with these players off the court. It seems pretty special. MEGAN DUFFY: Well, they get all nervous in front of you guys. I don't know what the problem is because about five minutes ago they're jumping up and down and screaming. These two are special. They bought in from day one when I came a year ago, and just looking at Selena today, got in a little bit of foul trouble but her efficiency was incredible. To finish 7-for-9, 4-for-4 from the free-throw line, 18 points, just steady. Hopefully, she'll have fresh legs tomorrow because she didn't play as heavy minutes. And then Izzy is more the quiet one, but she's been the silent assassin for us in so many ways. I think the big thing you saw today, her shot was falling but she was showing her versatility a little bit more. She's always been for a few years just a shooter, now she's got -- she had the challenge of -- shoot, guarding any of those St. John's guards is difficult. She keeps this team together. She's in a quiet way a tremendous leader for us, and I'm just thrilled for them. There was so much hype with the teams before how much talent there was with Hiedeman, and to see them up there as now the lead guards doing it is pretty cool. I know they're going to be very excited to be obviously facing an incredible team tomorrow in DePaul, but also just the opportunity to win a championship again and a whole new role for them is going to be fun to watch. Q. At your worst tonight you shot 52 percent. What was going so well? MEGAN DUFFY: I think our balance inside and out. Obviously we talked about the paint points was big, but I thought we did that in a couple different ways, whether that was the guards getting in there, offensive rebounds. It didn't feel like we shot it that well just because of their pressure, and we really had to execute our offense to the backside of things, so our first one or two options weren't there, and I thought that was the difference in the third and fourth quarter. We kind of kept our composure, and we have a little package where we can get to some things that we score a little bit later. When Sel went out with her fouls, that's happened a little bit this year, where she's had a few games in foul trouble or she's been hurt and been out, and the confidence that our freshmen, Jordan King had and Camryn Taylor, to make big baskets. I thought Chloe Marotta was tremendous tonight, just scoring efficiently in the paint. Until you guys mentioned that and I saw the stats sheet, I really couldn't believe it with the pressure we're facing against their guards. Hopefully we can keep that going for one more night. Q. You faced a legendary coach tonight, you've got another one tomorrow. Would you like to say something about that? MEGAN DUFFY: Yeah, it's special. When I wholeheartedly with my heart wanted to come to Marquette, I knew the caliber of the coaches I was going to be coaching against with Coach Bruno and Harry, and obviously Joe and I go way back from our days when I was an assistant at St. John's. At this level you want to compete against the best, whether you're talking to your players or the coaches. And I know how much preparation myself and our staff has done this year to be in position that we can beat those legendary coaches. It's pretty cool for me personally because I was a player still playing against these guys when I was at Notre Dame, so now to be on the sideline and have a team that I'm so honored to go to battle with, it's pretty cool to put them in position that they can go out and have fun and execute. You know, and then you talk about Flan at Creighton, the list goes often really good coaches in our league, and it's been a great just individual challenge for me, as well, and our staff to continue to put a good product out there and make adjustments and win in different ways, too. I think that's one of the things I'm most proud about. We've been able to win in a lot of different ways this year. Q. Would you describe the competition level between Marquette and DePaul, what gets brought to the table? MEGAN DUFFY: Yeah, it's incredible. I was sitting, not as a head coach last year, watching the games on TV and watching the rivalry, and obviously Doug has laid a foundation for all women's basketball in some ways, it's just how consistent they've been going to the tournament and being at the top of the conference for so long, and I thought it was pretty cool that Coach Kiegs and her staff got this thing going where it kind of turned into a little bit of a rivalry and the games were so close and everybody brought their best. I'm just thrilled that we still have the opportunity to keep that rivalry going, and we're going to give it our best effort. We've got some great confidence in our final regular season game at home, at the Al, where we beat them on Senior Night. When you get that taste of it, you know you can do it now. The second factor is you've got to show up tomorrow and do it again against a very talented team. It's a great rivalry, I think, and even in the recruiting world everybody knows DePaul and Marquette. And it's awesome that it'll be a game on Fox national TV with a lot of great support behind both teams. Q. All year you guys have had that underdog mentality. In the locker room what's it been like the last couple games being favored going in? MEGAN DUFFY: Yeah, I think we're going to keep the underdog mentality through the last buzzer that happens this season. I think they like that. They all have a little chip on their shoulder, at least I do - can we beat DePaul, can we beat St. John's, and they've kind of taken -- the 12 players in the locker room have kind of taken that ninth place preseason and kind of run with it. I've let them do that, do what you want with that. We're going to keep getting better every day. I think it's pretty cool after all is said and done. I was just talking to Bill Scholl our director of athletics, and he said, can you believe you're playing for a championship tomorrow? And we saw some spring and summer practices all together. It's very rewarding to see how our juniors and seniors have grown and now our freshmen stepping up in some of the biggest moments of their careers so far. So we're going to keep, like I said, celebrating the positives. We're going to keep our normal routine and have a heck of a time tomorrow. Q. St. John's finished the second quarter on a 10-2 run. What made it difficult to stop them during that stretch? MEGAN DUFFY: Well, our defense fell apart for a minute. We had a really hard time keeping the ball in front of us. They got a ton of paint touches and led to some fouls or led to some easy baskets. So we kind of went back at halftime to just collect ourselves, get our legs back under, made a couple little adjustments on some match-ups. And really what I've been able to do with this team, which has phenomenal with our players, is to say like, you've got a choice, you've got 20 minutes to find a way to play better one-on-one defense, and they really stepped up to that challenge and made it a lot difficult, and for St. John's to take a few more perimeter shots as opposed to getting the easy lay-ups. And then I thought once we got a little confidence going with that, it allowed our offense to continue to push forward. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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