North Carolina State University Athletics
Coaches' quotes
1/2/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
“Sometimes you like being in close games like that, but that one was a little too tough. You have no idea how well [UNC Greensboro] played. They hit some unbelieveable shots when we had a guy in their face, and they executed well. But in the end we dug in and made plays. Ben [McCauley] did a great job inside in the second half, and Gavin [Grant] hit two tremendous shots. We just made a little run in overtime and were able to hold them off.”
“I think this group is growing up in front of everybody’s eyes. This team knows what it takes to win. They do a great job of finishing games and making big plays.”
“Those were some great hustle plays by Ben [McCauley] in the second half. Somehow he was able to dive after a missed free throw and not only save the ball, but pass it back to Brandon [Costner]. Dennis [Horner] also had a great hustle play, where he just found a loose ball and convereted it for a layup. We always talk about diving for those loose balls.”
“We were playing inside-out tonight. We were doing a good job of dumping the ball into Ben [McCauley], and when he was doubled he was able to find the open man for an outside shot.”
“Gavin [Grant] kept his focus tonight, and did what he needed to do to help this team win. He didn’t get frustrated, and was ready to set up at the end. He took a charge late, You have to give him credit for that three to force the OT.”
UNC Greensboro Coach Mike Dement
“It was a good game, a great college basketball game. It came down to a couple of plays at the end, and they made more of them than we did. I didn’t think we had much defense or rebounding on our part, and they really hurt us on the boards in the second half and the overtime. We had a couple of chances at the end [of regulation], but we just couldn’t get a shot to fall. We played hard and should be proud about the way we played, but you don’t want to play that well and let one get away.”
“Grant hit a couple of big shots there at the end. The statistics don’t show that he’s a great perimeter shooter, but he obviously hit the big three-pointer at the end of regulation. That was a clutch shot.”
“They’ve got size on us, which created some mismatches for them, but I thought we played harder in our man-to-man so we stayed with that more in the second half. They isolate so well in their sets. Sidney has a lot of plays designed to get someone isolated, and they took advantage of that.”
“[Kendall] Toney, Mikko [Koivisto] and Ricky [Hickman] hit some threes for us. They doubled on [Kyle] Hines, but we kept going in to him because we felt he could kick it back to some open guys. He’s a very unselfish player.”
