Oregon State - Washington State Post Game Quotes
January 15, 2009 | Men's Basketball
On the game:
"This game was a tough one. The guys played hard, they did exactly what I asked them to do and we came up short. You look at the stats and they aren't that bad. Seven turnovers, and two or three of them were shot clock violations which I take the blame for because they are doing exactly what I am saying to do. You take that into consideration and we only had five turnovers. While they got five offensive rebounds they got a couple of key ones at the end. But we did a fantastic job on the boards and it's a shame we lost this game."
On the effort from the players:
"What I will say, and being the pessimist that I normally am, this is going to be a little surprising. This was by far one of our best games. That was a tough team, and it's hard to play teams that are similar to you. I thought our guys hung right in there and it's just too bad. Somebody has to lose a game like that and tonight it was us. We made some key mistakes and they hit some big shots down the stretch."
On the Gill Coliseum crowd:
"I have to tell you, that student section looked pretty good standing over there from my vantage point. People are going to find out that it is tough to play here."
On the Beavers defensive scheme:
"We have to do that, we have to make it hard for other teams in order to be competitive. We just watch the tapes and see how we can disrupt other teams; that's what we do. Unfortunately, we came up a little bit short this time. They made a couple adjustments to the things we do, but we were right there at the end of the game."
OREGON STATE SENIOR Rickey Claitt
On the game:
"It is real frustrating. We are playing a lot better than we did last year, but it is still really frustrating. At the same time, we have a lot to look forward to on Saturday. We cannot dwell, we need to focus and move forward to Washington. We have a lot more respect than last year, to be able to be where we are at and be in a position to win games is absolutely happening. At the same time we have to pull it out."
On the growing pains:
"Definitely, we are still young. I am one of the only seniors on the team and we still have all of our young players, so it is still a growing process. Every game we are learning and progressing."
OREGON STATE SOPHOMORE Calvin Haynes
On the last three sequences in OT:
"There is no excuse for missing that shot (the lay-up in over-time). The other shot just did not fall. The free throws? I blew it. I don't know what was going through my head during those last three possessions. I basically missed them, there is no excuse, and I missed them."
On what it took to win the game: "We should have won in regulation. Instead of shooting threes, we should have gone back to the basics, doing our regular backdoor cuts and getting layups. That led to the result (the lead and eventual loss)."
WASHINGTON STATE HEAD COACH TONY BENNETT
Overall thoughts:
"The game was hard-fought, our defense tightened up late, but it was not good enough early. (Aron) Baynes had a terrific game; he was the difference maker for us. You know how hard it is to get a win on the road, and we scrapped and didn't lose our composure too much."
On the lessons learned in this game
"That's part of growing and maturing and that's what we have to keep doing. If we can learn a lesson in a victory, then it's a lot better than learning it in a loss. We just need to keep learning and keep growing, and just don't give up."
On winning the rebounding game in the second half:
"(Baynes) got in some foul trouble early, as did DeAngelo Casto. DeAngelo had a little trouble with his hands in the second half, but I just felt like we needed to ride those two tonight. We found a little soft spot in that zone in the high post, and took advantage of some high-low things and got some second chance points."
