[Metcalf] just didn't have a good night. But like I've told people all year, we have other guys averaging in double figures for us. Those guys stepped up tonight. Everybody did what they've been doing all year. |
He's locked down every team's best player all year. |
I knew we could force them into a lot of turnovers. When we do give up a basket, we like to come back down the other way and try to get a quick, easy score. That breaks the heart of the other team when you do that. Nobody's been able to run with us all year. |
It was kind of the same thing that happened against Duquesne. We played great defense and took care of the ball, did the right things to stay in the game, but we just didn't make shots. It's a simple game. If you don't do that, it doesn't matter what else you do. |
Matt took over in the second half. He's a complete player. |
There were a lot of jitters in the first quarter. Our defense shut them down in the second quarter and I think that was the key. |
They're a very good team. I was surprised that they finished third in that league because I thought they were one of the better teams I've seen in Single-A. They have some very good athletes and they're well-coached. They're not your typical third-place basketball team, that's for sure. |
We don't have a lot of size. We can't control how tall we are, but we can control how well conditioned we are. |
We had some jitters in the first quarter. But we settled down. We always win with our defense. |
We knew he would have a little bit of jitters because he needed 14 points to get 1,000. He didn't have a good shooting game. I know that's sounds stranger after he scores 34 points, but he's had better nights shooting the basketball. |
We like to move the ball around. We thought they'd come out in a zone, so we just moved the ball around the perimeter and got open looks. |
We're going to bring back three guys who we know can really score. We also have some young guards who gained valuable experience. We think we can continue to build. |
We're very excited. We knew coming in that Springdale was a very tough opponent. We knew it was going to be a challenge. It was good just to get out there and get the win. |
We've been playing horrible defense lately, giving up more than 80 points the last few games. We wanted to come out and send a message that we can still play defense like we used to. We accomplished what we wanted to do defensively. |
We've tried to jump ahead of teams early to get our confidence and maybe shake the other team's. But Duquesne believes they're the best team every year, so we know they'll have their confidence. |