2/17: 74-50. Lipscomb jumped out to an early lead and we found ourselves playing catch up. We finally took our first lead with about 9 minutes to play in the first half and we just took off from there. It's great to win so decisively after losing by 12 there.
Ren Mert led us with 12, 13, 3, but 5 guys had 10 or more.
We played maybe our best D of the season, holding them to 31.6% from the field, and 21.4% on threes. +8 RBs.
Still 3 to play, 2 of them on the road, but the road games are both against weak teams. We need to go 3-0, and we should be able to do that if we keep our focus, play our games, and believe!
Excerpts from the Post Game Press Conference:
Q: Coach, your guys started out in a hole. Lipscomb came out strong. They were up 6 when a whistle blew and I heard you yell something. I couldn't quite make out what you said, but it seemed to turn things around. Can you tell us what you said?
Coach: Well, without the expletives (laughter) I told them I wasn't calling a time out. They knew what to do and I expected them to figure it out.
Q: Harsh?
Coach: Well, yeah, but it also showed them I believed they could do it and that's the way they took it, given what followed.
Q: This was maybe the biggest game of the season, which means the biggest game of your coaching career. Tell us what you did to get the kids ready.
Coach: We did all the same things we always do. The staff and i focused our practices on what we needed to do to stop them on D, and how to do what we needed to do to score points. Oh, and we always work on rebounding, too. We didn't do anything different and we didn't emphasize what a big game it was. All that would do is add pressure. We approached this game just like every other game.
Q: Well, it certainly worked. For a team without a senior this team usually shows a lot of poise. How does that happen?
Coach: Lots of reasons, certainly the never ending work and the never ending talk about believing in ourselves. But also, a few of our juniors are great leaders. Ren Mert has been a starter since his freshman year, and Reg Hayd started last season. Dens and Leon have been getting minutes for a couple of years. Our juniors give us senior leadership.
Q: It must be a good feeling to know that everybody is coming back next season.
Coach: It's a great feeling!