Jan. 19, 2004

Recap| Final Stats| Notes

Head Coach Stan Joplin

"There were two halves of basketball out there tonight. Eastern came back on Western Michigan and they did the same to us. This isn't the first big lead we had that we let it slip a little bit. It just shows you how explosive Eastern Michigan is. Their record doesn't indicate how good of a team they really do have."

(on being surprised about the team's 12-3 record)

"I'm surprised as much as anyone at our record. I give our players a lot of credit because they have done a nice job. We have some guys making plays and when the game got tight tonight Keith Triplett and Sammy Villegas both wanted to make plays. The first half Allen Pinson showed flashes of the type of player he can be. Hopefully the pieces of the puzzle are coming together, but for us we have to learn to play with a lead."

(on freshman Florentino Valencia scoring 13 points and grabbing season-high eight rebounds)

"He was playing that earlier in the season. He's been having good practices so I just decided to give him a start on a hunch. We brought him here because he was supposed to be a good inside player and rebounder but he'd gotten away from that. He just gives us another inside presence and that's what we need."

Freshman guard Justin Ingram

"We just came out and played our game. We like to run and get early shots. When we don't have that we run our offense."

(on allowing EMU to climb back in the game in the second half)

"We came out kind of slow at the beginning of the second half and Coach Joplin called timeout and told us what we needed to do. We knew what to do we just had to execute."

(on freshman forward Florentino Valencia)

"Tino came out and played great. He brings a lot of energy to the floor and that's just what he does day in and day out. We love Tino for that."

(on winning on the road)

"We have a lot of confidence in everybody on our team. Our coaches can put anybody on the bench on the court and we still have a lot of chemistry out there and play as a unit."