Oregon-Saint Mary's Postgame Quotes
12/18/08 | Men's Basketball
Postgame Quotes (Saint Mary's 78, Oregon 73)
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
McArthur Court ? Eugene, Ore.
Ernie Kent - Head Coach
Opening statement:
“We played as hard as we could tonight against a very good Saint Mary's basketball team, I thought we battled well with a veteran team. Mistakes were made, this a young team (Oregon) but we battled and fought back tonight.”
On what went wrong at the end:
“At the end of the game we gave up some chances, but we battled back after being down (at one point by as much as 12 points I think). With three to four minutes left in the game we trading possessions back and forth with them, however we lost out on some key fundamentals down the stretch. Saint Mary's was able to capitalize on the little things like blocking out and earning the second chances tonight, to me that was the difference in our effort.”
On his young team learning anything from the close loss:
“This is a valuable lesson and we can get better. Now we go back to the drawing board. In the locker room I talked about getting better in the next two games. The freshmen are not sure how to work through the adversity yet.”
On Dunigan being out of rhythm:
“Michael hasn't practiced much and that hurt us. We need to get Michael back into practice so he can get his conditioning back.”
Kamyron Brown - So., G
Opening thoughts:
“This was a must win game for us tonight headed into Saturday's game with Portland, we wanted to even up our record and now all the games (to me) have become must win situations. We fell short tonight and most of it was due to the mental game, boxing out and missing rebound opportunities on their clutch free throw attempts.”
On guarding Patrick Mills:
“He was a great challenge for me personally, but he still achieved his 20 points so give him credit because he worked hard and earned everything out there tonight. He (Mills) allowed me to step my game up on defense.”
On finding a new offensive groove (season-high 15 points):
“I found a new gear in the game tonight, I was able to drive and take some jumpers. But I also was able to see the court better, and allowed myself to find some of my other teammates better tonight. We will keep our heads up and continue to play with intensity.”
