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BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 5, 2012Barnes AricoNadirah McKenithDa'Shena StevensHARTFORD, CONNECTICUT Connecticut – 74 THE MODERATOR: Joining us is head coach Kim Barnes Arico along with senior forward Da'Shena Stevens and junior guard Nadirah McKenith. Coach, an opening statement, please? COACH BARNES ARICO: I thought Connecticut played really well tonight. I knew it was going to be a difficult task for us, but I thought we would have played a little bit better. I don't think we played very well. Connecticut did a great job. Part of that reason was because of their pressure, but we turned the ball over way too much. But we faced, I think, a really great team tonight. A Final Four team. So it was a tough game for us, but we've got to regroup and get ready for the tournament. Q. I know this loss is fresh in your minds, but can you put in perspective what you went through this Big East season? It was a breakthrough year and finishing second in the conference, what it's meant for you guys? COACH BARNES ARICO: It's kind of so hard because you end on a note like this and you really want to appreciate what the kids have been able to do all season. I just tried to talk to them a little bit there in the hallway and say, and I think they felt embarrassed because they weren't playing well, and they played so well leading up to this that they were disappointed and frustrated and embarrassed. But tomorrow's a new day and what they've been able to accomplish this year has been incredible. To beat UCONN at UCONN and break that streak and do all that, we knew that coming here tonight and playing them in Hartford in the Big East tournament was going to be a tall task. We knew that they were going to be prepared. They probably wanted to play us more than anyone, except maybe Notre Dame, but they'll have a shot at that tomorrow. It was a tough game for us, but our year has been tremendous, and I think we've really accomplished things that we've never been able to accomplish before, and our kids have really played tremendous all year. Like I said, I wish we could erase tonight. And I'm sure at some point when I look back on the year and maybe a couple days, I'll get back to how good of a year it was. Q. Da'Shena, Stefanie Dolson had struggled against you guys in the previous two meetings in her career. She scored six points total. Tonight she goes off with 23. What was it about the inside game tonight that worked for them? DA'SHENA STEVENS: I think she just wants to come in the game and get the ball inside. Just try to throw us off. I think that sometimes we forgot to rotate or rotate down and help off sometimes. I think she's really determined to score tonight and get good position. Sometimes we got caught behind. When you get that far behind, there is really nothing you can do. Q. Why was it so hard for you guys to get into a rhythm? Was it specifically something Notre Dame did? Was it fatigue playing in an overtime game? Can you pinpoint why it was so tough? NADIRAH McKENITH: I think tonight we didn't come out and play aggressive as we normally do. We just give credit to UCONN. They came out and fought hard. They wanted this game more than anything. In the beginning of the game, we kind of struggled and never recuperated and regained from the struggle. I think we'll just get better in practice and preparing for the tournament. Q. If you could talk about the progress over the past four years, three years and finally having a No. 2 seed in this tournament and how it feels to have progressed in your time at St. John's? DA'SHENA STEVENS: It's been great. Besides this loss, I think we have been improving and just showing progress. I think we probably won eight straight to close the season off. But to be a part of something like that and to keep showing progress every year, and this year we got the second seed. We beat teams that we probably weren't supposed to beat. I just think it shows where the program's going and just how we keep improving with each year. Q. Kim, two games tonight were very similar in a sense, redemption for Notre Dame and then for UCONN. Mike said that he figured going in that the first eight minutes were going to be key to them. That Notre Dame's going to try to throw the knockout punch, and they did. Did you have the same feeling going in that had you to get to‑‑ I know you played four minutes at a time, but to get through the first two stretches to get in the spot you want to be in? COACH BARNES ARICO: Yeah, I felt exactly the same way. When we played up at Connecticut, they came out 11‑3. We took a timeout, and that's how a lot of games go with them. If you can keep it close, maybe you can hang around. But if they take off on you, it's hard to recover. Up at Connecticut, they went up 11‑3 called a timeout, and then went on a 12‑0 run after that. So I was hoping today it was stuck at 19‑8 for a couple possessions, and we had two bad turnovers. I just thought they did a better job, Connecticut did a better job tonight of forcing us into turnovers. We didn't handle their pressure well. Normally we don't turn the ball over nearly as much as we did tonight and I thought we got tight. Instead of bouncing back, we might have broken it a couple of times, made a couple chippies and that took the wind out of our sails. That's what happened with them, and they continued, continued, continued, and we didn't recover. I don't think after that we were ever able to get back in the game. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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