Jan. 9, 2005

Recap |  Box Score |  Notes

Head Coach Stan Joplin

"I knew this was going to be a tough game and I didn't feel comfortable with a 15-point lead. We tried to keep the crowd out of the game as much as we couldn't hold on. We had two or three rebounds that we just didn't squeeze and that's where you have to have a little more toughness."

"Buffalo and Eastern Michigan are both talented teams and I thought if we could squeak out with a win in one of these games I would be happy. We came up just short in both games and we couldn't sustain a lead against either team. That's what really hurts. This was by far the best defensive game we played especially in the first half. Winning on the road in the MAC is going to be extremely tough especially when you play an Eastern Michigan or Buffalo because they aren't going to lose too many home games."

"We just didn't get it done. We went up on them and we might have relaxed a little and we couldn't finish. We missed free throws and we didn't do a very good job of adjusting to the officiating. We put ourselves in position to win the game, but we just didn't finish."

(on what happened after having a 15-point lead in the second half)

"It seemed like there was a lid on the basket. We didn't get the stops we needed and we took some ill-advised shots. In the first half, I thought our defense was pretty good and we got our energy from that but we didn't sustain it. We had some good looks at the basket but they just didn't go down. You can't shoot like we did from the free-throw line and have so few attempts from the line and win that many games."