Jan. 29, 2005

Recap |  Box Score |  Notes

Toledo Head Coach Stan Joplin

"If we played this game on the road we probably would have lost. I thought our fans did a nice job giving us some energy. We got behind early but we stayed the course. When you're at home it give the opportunity to stay in the game. We kept chipping away and we kept at it. You have to give Kent State a lot of credit. They hit a lot of threes and some were from NBA range. We wanted to prevent from making so many threes but we didn't do a good job in that area. We were able to get the ball inside which we haven't been able to do a lot. Kareem (Milson) and Tino (Valencia) both were scoring inside and we made some plays down the stretch."

(on multiple players picking the slack)

"Everybody hasn't played well for us at the same time this season. I'm still waiting for us to play well. I think you saw how valuable Keonta Howell is because he can shoot the ball from outside, rebound and play defense. Anton is the same way and I try to have one of those two on the floor for us all the time. Kareem, Tino and Allen (Pinson) found ways to score inside. Those groups kind of offset Keith (Triplett) struggling a little bit and Sammy struggling with his shooting. We're certainly happy with the play we got off the bench."

(on being at home and building off this win)

"We hope we can but it's a long season. We're just happy to be home and happy to get a win. Now we can gain some confidence because you don't really have a chance to do that when you're on the road a lot. You can get your adrenalin flowing with the crowd cheering you on when you're at home. This game is over now and now we have Western Michigan and that's going to be an extremely tough game."

(on what helped the team get off to a good start in the second half)

"I think Kashif Payne's three-pointer at the buzzer really gave us a lot of confidence going into the lockerroom. If we didn't have that we would have been down by nine. Then we came out strong in the second half and we're able to take a lead."

Junior forward Anton Currie

(on his role on the team)

"I'm in the game to be an energy guy and come in and play hard, grab rebounds and score when the opportunity is there. It was tough to figure out my role at first but now I'm comfortable with it and I know what to do night in and night out."

(on how much the team benefits from the energy provided by role players)

"It's contagious and it helps out a lot. Once one guy does it, then somebody else does it and then everybody is doing it. It makes the team that much better."

(on the importance of this game and being at home for a long stretch)

"It means a lot. Everybody plays well at home and it feels good to be back here playing in front of our fans and feed off their energy."

(on the difference in the second half)

"I think our defense was more consistent. We talked about getting out to their shooters and then we rebounded better and started communicating more."

(on holding onto a second-half lead)

"Guys really concentrated on what was going on. We had confidence in each other and I think that really helped us."

Kent State Head Coach Jim Christian

"Toledo got the ball inside and we did a bad job of defending them and we didn't a rebound. If you don't get defensive stops you allow teams to build momentum and that's what happened today. We didn't have one player on our team who was aggressively rebounding the basketball and because of that we gave them extra possessions."

(on Toledo's 50-18 advantage in points in the paint)

"They had a lot of offensive putbacks and guards driving and it was bad defense. You can't give up that many easy baskets and expect to win."

(on the difference in the second half)

"You have to get key stops and have five guys working together. We would play hard and have one guy break down and that hurt us. It was a lack of composure for us defensively in the second half."