BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 6, 2021

Jim Crowley

Providence Friars

Mohegan Sun Arena

Postgame Media Conference

Marquette - 68, Providence - 43

COACH CROWLEY: Credit to Marquette. You could see how well they are playing and how focused they are.

They run their stuff so well. They're really skilled defensively and disciplined. And we got out of it, how we wanted, and they did that to us and we got disrupted. And obviously there's a lot of other stuff that went into it. But quite simply they made shots and we didn't at times in the game. It's that simple.

But credit to them. I think they got a lot of basketball in them this month.

Proud of what our kids have gone through and done this year and grown into. Disappointing today but also know there's a bigger picture (indiscernible).

Q. Just speak a little bit, what makes Lauren Van Kleunen so hard to defend night in and night out, knowing that this is your third time this season going against her?

COACH CROWLEY: And 15th time in her seven years it seems like she's been there. She plays really hard. She runs the floor hard every time. She goes to the boards hard every time. She goes into her screens hard every time. She rolls hard every time. She posts hard every time. She just plays with ridiculous effort.

And when she sees an early one go in it's going to be a good day for her. And she saw an early one go in. She's quick in her release on the perimeter to go along with that great effort. And she also did a really good job defensively disrupting our timing of our screens and our ability (indiscernible).

She's really skilled. I don't want to sound like she's not a very skilled player, but effort is a skill and to do it consistently is a high-level skill, and she has it.

Q. Speaking of effort, your own Alyssa Geary tonight seemed to try to get herself into every single play, finishing with 10 points. What could you speak with her play, her effort tonight?

COACH CROWLEY: I was proud of our team. It would have been easy to roll a little bit. We did that when we played out at Marquette. They forced that because they play so intense all the time.

But I thought Alyssa stayed with it. She got frustrated. But in the second half really stayed with what we needed her to do. Got patient in the post. Had even a great move in the last couple minutes there that just didn't go in.

Her 3 wasn't -- she rushed her 3 a little bit today. But she was able to collect herself and grow a little bit and have a better second half and take some momentum in the (indiscernible).

Q. Sophia really gave you a boost offensively in the first half. I think it was a season high for her today. Could you talk about her performance?

COACH CROWLEY: Yeah, thankfully she did or we would have had a single number probably in that first half. But, yeah, credit to Soph. It's a challenge when you're working and maybe not getting the time that you like. But she's an incredible teammate. She really -- we talked to her about really playing off two feet. She did that early and got the foul and saw the ball go in and then was ready to shoot it there.

So that's not an easy thing to do to stay positive and to stay invested in your team when some things aren't going your way. But credit to her and her maturity and her love for her teammates to do that. Really happy that she had that kind of performance today.

Q. Under Coach Duffy it seems like the Marquette team is really aggressive under the paint, getting the rebounds. As an opposing team, how hard is it trying to stop that, trying to pull a win against a good team like Marquette?

COACH CROWLEY: Clearly I'm probably not the right guy to ask since they handled us every time we played them. Years ago we (indiscernible) played Notre Dame when they went to the Sweet 16. And their level of consistent intensity for every single play -- and they whacked us pretty good -- but even way up their level of intensity was really remarkable.

That's what Marquette has. There's not a play off from any of them, whether it's offense or defense. That's a credit to Megan and her staff. That's a credit to those kids to be able to be coached like that.

And they're miserable to play against, but they're a lot of fun to watch and again all the credit goes to the staff and the kids because some kids don't accept that kind of coaching. So a lot of credit.