by Wayne23 » Thu Apr 29, 2021 10:49 pm
4/1: 87-73! We took an early lead and held it. Up only 2 at the half. We broke it open with an 11-0 run midway through the 2nd and stretched the lead to 17.
We won it with a balanced attack. Brian Ward, who has had an excellent tournament, led us with 18, 4, 5 and only 1 TO. Mike Wins had 16, 3, 6, and he also had only 1 TO. . 14, 5, 4 for Bree but he had 7 TOs and fouled out. Our bench stepped up and matched theirs, but our starting guards won it for us.
We shot 55%, 42.9% on threes, and 75% from the line. They made only 3 threes (on 16 attempts).
Gigantic win!
Post Game Press Conference:
Q: Coach, how does it feel?
Coach: (Smiles) I mean, we're going to play for the national title. I couldn't be prouder of my kids, no matter what happens. And how does it feel? There are no words. It's incredible!
Q: You actually dominated one of the best teams in the country. How did you do it?
Coach: You know my mantra, work as hard as you can and believe in yourself and in your teammates. We had a few days to prepare for Kentucky, and we knew what they did well and focused on not letting them do it. But really, our ), especially our guards, won it for us. Ward has gone to a whole other level in this tournament and tonight he was world class. He did it all on O and held his man to 5 points. Mike Wins had a very tough defensive assignment and I have to say he outplayed his man. We led just about all the way, and every time they came at us we got a stop or hit a key shot. This one played out the way you always hope they will.
Q: Purdue for the title. They're as good as anyone in the country, they play the best D in the country going by PPG Against. Their PG and Power Forward are both superstars. What do you do?
Coach: We work harder than they work and believe in ourselves and our teammates. I want the ball in Brian Ward's hands, and the way he's playing I have a lot of confidence in him making the plays we need him to make. I don't know as much about them as I'd like to and the staff will be up all night figuring out a plan, which I don't have now, but we'll be ready, and we'll give it all we've got.
Yaph King: We play #1 seed, #3 ranked, #6 NET Purdue, 33-5, for the title.
We don't match up as well as we'd like with them, and we don't have a meaningful statistical edge in any category. They are really strong at the Point so Brian
Ward has to play the way he's been playing. Sam Toma needs to defend a very, very tough PF. Abe Hawk needs to stay on the floor rather than sitting with foul trouble. Our bench looks better than theirs and they'll need to play that way.
They run a very quick offense, and score more inside than out, but their guards can score.
On D they only press when they need to. They use the man but throw in the 2-3 fairly often.
This is the game of our lives so everyone, including the subs, needs to step up big.