Santa Clara-Oregon Post-game Quotes
12/13/05 | Men's Basketball
Head Coach Ernie Kent
On fighting through adversity:
"When a team gets out of rhythm it can take awhile to find it again. This game was a step in the right direction. The team took shots they should take, they just couldn't get them to fall."
On the team's defense:
"We defended well and that kept us in the game early. In the second half we were able to get the shots to fall. We knew we needed to keep running the offense and stay in the game. When you are struggling to get the offense rolling, defense and free throw shooting become even more important. We were also defending well and hitting our free throws."
On Maarty Leunen:
"He was consistent and he kept getting in there and getting tough rebounds. I thought he probably should have been to the free throw line even more than he was. The game was very physical inside and guys were banging around."
On Ivan Johnson:
"Ivan earned his starting spot tonight and played very well. He is such a big, strong, quick athlete, that he can make those steals and breakaway dunks and he will have several more of those this season."
On the team needing to get out of the slump:
"This is something you have to fight through, but you can't put so much pressure on yourself that you make it worse. This period of adversity should serve to make us stronger as a team."
"It is a long season and I continue to remind the team and myself of that. We need to step back from those last three games and look at the positive steps we made in this game and move forward. We have plenty of basketball to play and we need to get back to where we were in our first several games."
#10 Maarty Leunen- F
"Tonight we did a lot better job of passing the ball. We really just needed to get back into rhythm from the past few games and move the ball around a lot more."
On halftime:
"We knew we were getting close to getting back into the rhythm. Coach Kent just said to play hard, play through and learn from our mistakes."
"This is a game where we needed to get the win. We can't lose four games in a row. We're looking forward to New Mexico now and getting our second win in a row."
#0 Aaron Brooks- PG
"The first half was a little sluggish but we came out and picked it up in the second half. The biggest thing right now is improvement. We just needed to pick it up from the Illinois game."
"The defense was there, our shots just weren't falling. Coach Kent said to go hard in warm-ups and I think that going hard in warm-ups is what made the difference in the second half."
On Ivan Johnson's play:
"We're shooters. All of us can shoot the ball, and if that's not working then we know we can look to Ivan in the middle and count on him."
Santa Clara Head Coach Dick Davey
"It's tough to win on the road. I think our team is going to be a decent team down the road, we're just not mature enough to be a team like that yet."
On Ivan Johnson:
"Truthfully, he really helped them early in the game when neither team could throw it in the ocean. He made a few baskets down low to get them started. He's very physical, he creates some problems for you with his quickness and his strength. He did a good job."
"They had good play out of four or five guys during the course of the game. Leunen did some nice things. He got the boards and created some problems there, and he shot on the perimeter a little bit in the second half."
"To their credit, they came to the front when they needed to."
"I thought their defense was pretty solid the whole game. In the first half, they shot 30% and we shot 32%. So it was either really bad offense or really good defense for both teams early on. But in the second half they stayed with it. At home you have to do that, and they did a good job."
