Wake Forest Athletics
Post Game Quotes
3/8/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 8, 2009
Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery 
Opening statement...
"I thought we played a much better second half. I should have bought a ticket and sat in the bleachers and walked. The court was really open. We scored the ball, they scored the ball. I thought we had some guys step up in the second. James (Johnson) did a terrific job. Jeff (Teague) played well when he was saddled with fouls. Al-Farouq Aminu was really good tonight. Chas (McFarland) got some big rebounds for us. He battled down there. I'm really happy for our seniors, especially Harvey Hale. We have a tradition where all the seniors talk before our final home game. Jimmy (McQuilkin) spoke Wednesday and then Mike Lepore and Bobby (Hoekstra) and then Harvey spoke today. When I introduced him, I said I don't know if there's a guy that exemplifies what Wake Forest basketball is more than Harvey Hale. He's a great student. He's going to graduate in May, which will be our 17th senior in eight years to graduate. He's a terrific young man in the community. Nothing but positive things you hear about him from the faculty and the people in Winston-Salem. He really represents our program really well. These young guys got 24 wins, 11 in the ACC. I'm really proud of them."
On the team's defense...
"We just had to lock down and guard. I think sometimes we get in the flow of the game with it being as hectic as it is. We forget that we have to get back on the other end and guard. They must have set 40 or 50 ball screens. At first, the guard wasn't getting over the ball screen with enough urgency. Then we started going under on Demontez (Stitt) and Andre Young, but we wanted to go over the top on K.C. (Rivers) and (Terrence) Oglesby. It helped us a little bit. Their ball screen offense hurt us."
On the rebounding advantage...
"The last three games we've had a big rebounding advantage. Although we outrebounded them down there, they had 21 offensive rebounds at Littlejohn (Coliseum). We held them to 10 tonight. They didn't miss that many, but that's been a really big positive for us."
Clemson Head Coach Oliver Purnell
Opening statement...
"Guard play at the end of the half really cost us. Instead of being up eight, we were only up four. That was not a good period for us. Their ability to shoot the ball and our inability to guard them, to the point where they shot 60 percent. I think they were shooting 70 percent with three or four minutes to play, which was the tale of the tape. Obviously they got to the free throw line and converted. They are a really good basketball team on their home court and got the job done on senior night."
On the Clemson press...
"Obviously our press got us the lead in the first half but we gave it away with turnovers. We got out of it in the second half but came back to it and got ourselves back into the game but we didn't rebound in the half court. Our press did what we wanted it to do but they definitely got some easy baskets in transition not necessarily from the press but from some of our missed shots that led to fast breaks. When we were down five or six down the stretch, our inability to get a rebound on the defensive end really hurt us. When they missed and we weren't able to come up with the rebound, it was frustrating."
On his team's defense...
"We didn't defend them well enough and they basically shot 70 percent in the second half. Let me say it again, we just didn't defend them well enough. Anytime you let a team shoot 70 percent and you send them to the line that many times, you're not going to be very happy with your defense."
