Dec. 28, 2007

Recap |  Box Score |  Notes |  AP Action Photos 

QUEENS, N.Y. -

St. John's Head Coach Norm Roberts
On tonight's game:
"Give Marist a lot of credit. We took a lead on them and they made some huge plays and some huge shots to come back. We made some bonehead plays but we toughed it out. We have to just play a bit smarter. I knew our freshmen would be a little nervous playing in the Garden but they tried hard and we will get better."

On the importance of this win:
"Every victory is important going into conference play. We want to play our best going into conference play. We just have a young group. You have to ride that wave a little bit. The nice thing about them is their perseverance and that they come back and hopefully we will be better tomorrow."

On the freshmen:
"There are things they need to learn. If a guy is a shooter, then you cannot leave him. When you do that, you allow a team to get confident again and they get back into it."

On Eugene Lawrence's lay-up at the end of the game:
"It was a huge. Geno had driven in there a couple of times and they backed off of him. He continued to go in there and he made that play and that was awesome. He is a senior and we needed him to make that play."

On D.J. Kennedy, Paris Horne and Malik Boothe:
"Energy. They played with energy and got into the passing lanes. They did some things. There are going to be nights that D.J. is great and nights where Paris is not as great. Tonight Paris gave us really good minutes and Malik gave us good minutes."

On Eugene Lawrence taking over at the end of games:
"He does it instinctively. He knows the pressure of the game. He knows I want the ball in his hands and I want him to attack. Malik (Boothe) is going to learn that."

On Anthony Mason:
"I don't know if Mase will stay as the sixth man as of right now. He is comfortable with that right now. Mason knows he will get his minutes and get out there playing quite a bit."

On preparing for tomorrow:
"We will do a scouting report. We will talk about scouting report a little bit tonight. It is pretty late so we will let them go to sleep and we may talk about it tomorrow. We will do a light shoot around tomorrow. I know they will be excited to play a great team like Virginia Tech and a chance to play for the championship."

Marist Head Coach Matt Brady
On tonight's game:
"Let me start by saying, we came in this game knowing that St. John's defense is very good. The numbers don't lie. I told them at the half, we were going to get a lead. In every game, in our five of our six losses, we had a lead. For us, every play is a big deal. Not getting the rebound on a missed free-throw by St. John's is a big play. I give St. John's a lot of credit. They are a gutsy group of guys. We had the lead and it got away from us. We need to learn how to do that (keep the lead) and that is my responsibility."