BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 3, 2023

Jim Crowley

Mohegan Sun Arena

Providence Friars

Postgame Media Conference

DePaul - 67, Providence - 54

COACH CROWLEY: Just really proud of our group. In a frustrating year there was never any quit and a lot of competitiveness, including today.

We've seen this game before over the last month or so. Also credit to DePaul. Obviously a really good team. Morrow did a great job in the first half. Really I thought the game into the first quarter -- I think we were up 15-14 and we had, I believe, three turnovers and an early shot, and they converted that into five or six points to have that first quarter lead.

And then second quarter we settled for some jump shots and didn't really move the ball offensively or play within our tempo. And that got their offense going quite a bit.

And then we just dug too big a hole. We gave ourselves a little bit of a chance at times the second half but to their credit they made plays and kept that separation at that level.

Proud of our group. They compete. They defend. I've got to do a better job of helping them offensively.

Q. Obviously DePaul pretty much had their way offensively. In the second half what kind of adjustments did you make in the locker room to really lock DePaul down as a whole, on their offensive end, but even keeping Morrow in check for the most part?

COACH CROWLEY: I thought Emily Archibald did an amazing job on Morrow. Morrow is a phenomenal scorer. And Em did a really great job positionally and contested. And when she got her second foul early in the first half, that hurt because that was a match-up we wanted to get to with her on Morrow. So I thought that was good.

And our offense was better. We didn't turn it over as much. We made them work a little bit more on the defensive end, didn't take as many early jumpers to get their transition going. And we were able to ball pressure some more which disrupted some timing.

Q. Janai, another big game today. She got a nice hand there at the end from your section behind you. What did she mean to the team this year? And what did her play mean, particularly today but all year long?

COACH CROWLEY: The first thing, she's obviously very well known, well known in our state and even nationally. For her to choose our program shows a status that is helpful with where we want to end up.

And I told her, she was the leader of our competitiveness. She always competes. And she just bows really hard and guards multiple people. And when she's attacking the rim we're pretty good offensively. And she just doesn't quit. And that is the one thing we can say about our team.

So I think she's implemented that into our program, which I'm really proud of. And, again, just the fact that we can be a destination for high-level people, especially ones looking to get back to New England.