Feb. 9, 2005

Recap |  Box Score |  Notes

UT Head Coach Stan Joplin

"I was very happy with our effort defensively and that was probably the big difference for us. We made them work for everything. Our offense wasn't pretty and we were able to withstand their run. The first game we gave them too many open shots and easy baskets. Tonight we did a much better job."

(on so many teams in the MAC having four or five losses)

"I think the coaching is good and it's the parity that exists in college basketball. Homecourt advantage is huge. The league has always kind of been like where you always have a lot of good teams. If you don't come out ready to play and compete for 40 minutes you're going to come up on the short side."

(on Keith Triplett being limited to eight points)

"It was a team effort for us. Monday and Tuesday were really the first time he has practiced in about three weeks due to his hip pointer. We tried to work on his conditioning and with chasing John Reimold all over that takes a lot of you. He forced some shots and he has to let things come to him but a lot of that had to do with Bowling Green's defense."

(on still being in the hunt in the MAC's West Division)

"I've been telling the players all along that teams are going to get beat. We still haven't played well and when we do the light is really going to come on. We're still right there and we have to take care of our own business. We've told the players that everything is going to work out and we need to continue to improve as a basketball team."

UT sophomore guard Keonta Howell

(on the team's defense)

"We wanted to play better defensively this time around because last game we gave up 53 points in the second half alone. Coach stressed playing better defense a lot this week in practice and defending their three-point shooters."

(on the importance of the win)

"We're happy and overjoyed. We were even happier when we heard that Ball State lost and that the top teams in the West Division all have five losses. It was a big game all around and to be just about tied for first after we haven't played all that well it's a good thing."

UT junior forward Anton Currie

(on the start of the second half)

"I think it was a lack of concentration on our part. Everybody got together and we knew we had to start playing better defense. That's when things started to come around for us."

BG Head Coach Dan Dakich

"It was a hard-fought game for both teams and I love how hard my team battled. I think the turning point in the game really came down to when John Reimold missed a three late that he usually makes. It was unfortunate for us with the start we had with all of our turnovers but you have to credit their defense. We settled down a little bit in the second half and played some defense and got back in the game."

(on the first half)

"I was concerned with how bad we were playing and that we couldn't get a shot. That's been how it has been for us this year. I thought we looked really slow in the first half, but in the second half we looked a lot better."

(on the guard play)

"Our guards didn't have enough creativity and didn't set our teammates enough. We're usually more unselfish with our motion offense but we didn't have good enough execution by our guards. Steven Wright did carry our offense with almost half of our points and he also had eight rebounds but we just took the ball to bad spots and I have credit Toledo for that."

BG junior guard Steven Wright

"We came out and we weren't cutting and moving in our offense. We were standing around a lot even though we run a motion offense. That made us drive the ball into the traffic more."

"We knew Toledo was going to come out and pressure the ball. It was up to us to come back at them and we didn't do that in the first half."

"We knew that we had to come out in the second half and run our offense and get in the gaps on defense."