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Player Postgame Quotes
Juanita Ward, Senior, Forward
On her performance in the last three games:
“I wouldn’t take all of the credit. I would give most of the credit to my teammates. We practice really hard in practice. We go hard in practice. Competing against each other makes everyone better. It is not a one person show. It is everyone on the floor.”
On her success this year:
“We work very hard in practice. Competing in practice and Coach (Hillsman) pushing us and making us play hard has helped in our successes. Everything is coming together as a team for us. We are looking pretty good.”
On if she is having fun:
“Yes, I am.”
On what has been different in the last three games for her:
“It’s nothing different. The competition level is always there. The competitiveness was always there. It’s nothing different in my basketball game. It’s nothing different on the court, whatever the case may be. It’s basically that we have a good team. Our team is really good, from Erica (Morrow) to Nicole (Michael) to Tasha (Harris). Everyone on the floor, Tyler (Ash). Everybody is competing and everybody is doing good and everybody is picking up. This year we added three new freshmen and everybody is picking up. The competitiveness in practice is helping everyone.”
On if she has ever chest bumped Coach Quentin Hillsman before:
“Actually we were talking about that before the game. Erica (Morrow) was in the huddle and she said, ‘Today we are going to give chest bumps.’ Everyone said, ‘Alright.’”
On what she was thinking during the break-away:
“Make the lay-up, make the lay-up.”
On the team’s performance:
“We are coming together. We are looking good on the floor. We need to be a little bit more patient. Everybody knows everybody’s strengths and everybody wants to see everyone do well. We are rushing a little bit. We need to be more patient.”
Erica Morrow, Junior, Guard
On how this game helped prepare SU to get ready for Rutgers:
“Like Coach said, it is tough playing a non-conference game in the middle of the BIG EAST. We will go back to practice and clean-up a few things we need to clean-up and get ready for BIG EAST play.”
On if the team is ready for BIG EAST play:
“We have a lot of freshmen and a lot of people in different positions. We are as ready as we are going to be. The BIG EAST is something that you can’t really prepare for because it is a real physical conference. All of the players are fast and strong. You need to get in there and bump with other teams. You can’t prepare for it. It’s hard to prepare for how fast another team runs their plays or how intense they are, but to compete within yourself.”
On if the zone and full court press is SU’s best defense:
“We play all of our defenses fairly well. As far as me getting six steals, I couldn’t really hit anything on offense, so I was trying to contribute to my team in whatever way possible.”
On Juanita Ward’s chest bump with Coach Quentin Hillsman:
“We used to do that in practice to try to get excited for those 5 a.m. workouts. It was to help us be awake. I had no idea she was going to chest bump Coach. Coach is real intense. It is like he is our sixth man on the court. He is always right there, every step of the way. It is like when we score he scores. It is a good thing to see coaches get involved. You don’t see that a lot with coaches. “
On Juanita Ward’s play:
“Juanita is going to be a key component to our success. We need her to get on the boards, we need her to play in the paint and we need her to get back. She has been playing excellent. She has been focused on what we are doing and scoring for us and playing real big. She is a real strong guard. She has unbelievable potential. I am happy for her because she works very hard.”
On what the team needs to do against Rutgers to be successful:
“Rutgers is always going to come out. They are always going to play hard. They are always going to be physical. Their coach does not expect anything less from them. I know a lot of the players. A few of us are from New York and we played against each other in AAU. They are going to come out and they are going to play hard and they are going to make shots. We are going to have to compete and play hard and see what happens. Hopefully it will be a win because I think we have a really good basketball team.”
