Feb. 26, 2005

Recap |  Box Score |  Notes

Head Coach Stan Joplin

"I was really happy with our defensive effort. I was very concerned about their outside shooting after seeing them play great in their win over Western Michigan. When we won at Central they played without their two leading scorers Kevin Nelson and Sefton Barrett and they played well against Western and I was very concerned. I thought they could give us trouble if they made a lot of threes, went to the free throw line and we turned the ball over too much."

"It was nice to see Allen Pinson play like that and Justin Ingram rebound the ball like that. The one thing we haven't done well is rebound the basketball. We had 16 offensive rebounds and that puts a little more pressure on the other team's defense."

(on the team's defensive play improving)

"I see it more at home than on the road. We wanted to improve in that area and our defense has been good but our defense has been atrocious. I think rebounding is the final piece to the puzzle for us. When your work hard and make the other team miss a shot and don't get the rebound it just demoralizes you. We've been really concentrating on our rebounding and we have to be more consistent in that area."

(on winning a game by a large margin)

"I think anytime you win that's always a good thing. If you get a situation where you have a double-digit lead this late in the year you have to be extremely happy because they're not going to happen very often."

Sophomore guard Justin Ingram

(on the importance of the defensive play tonight)

"Coach Joplin preaches defense to us every day. He wants us to get out there and pressure the ball. Kevin Nelson is a great shooter and he didn't want us to give him any open looks. He wanted us to make it as hard for him as possible."

(on the defensive effort helping the offense)

"It makes things easier on offense. Coach Joplin tells us that our offense is going to be inconsistent. Defense is about effort and you just go out and play as hard as you can. If you get going from your defense instead of your offense you'll end up getting easy buckets."

(on having a large margin of victory and its effect on the team)

"It was a lot of fun for us. Most of our games it's been close and for us to put a team away like this at the end of the season it boosts our conference as we try to get ready for the MAC Tournament."

Sophomore center Allen Pinson

(on not having Keith Triplett in the starting lineup due to illness)

"I don't think it really changes much because we were all ready to play and whoever is in there we feel confident."

(on the surge in the second half)

"Everybody got into the play and we were all playing hard together. That really helped us take control."