Oregon State-Oregon Post-game Quotes
12/31/05 | Men's Basketball
"We needed a game like this where we had to fight and try to win it possession by possession. We defended very well and we played with passion as a team."
"We are still trying to figure out who we are as a team, but today we played a smart, controlled type of game."
"We did a nice job taking the perimeter away from them, but our 3-pointers weren't falling either."
"In close games like this we preach to the team to defend well and hit free throws and we did just that today and were able to get the win."
On Aaron Brooks:
"He was a phenomenal point guard today. He did everything he needed to do, he hit some big shots for us and made great passes when the shots weren't there. That is the type of game we always look for Aaron to have."
On the Bench Scoring:
"Bryce and Ivan had some big buckets to help us stay in the lead late and also gave us some big minutes off the bench. It's great when you can rely on your bench to produce like that."
"Coming into this game we knew we had a new season ahead of us. We knew we had to get the first game. This was huge for us. You could see us getting back in rhythm out there.
"We know they can score pretty well down in the post. We just had to get it out of their hands."
"We knew we definitely needed to step up, start playing, and win games. We still have a lot of areas to work on, but we've shown some improvement."
We're excited now. We've got two big games coming up. We're going to stay positive and look forward to our next couple of games.
"We don't really think about our shooting. We have great scorers on our team. Eventually, our shots are going to fall."
"We felt that we gave them too many possessions in the first half. We tried to correct that and lock down their huge players."
"We learned from our mistakes last game. We were driven to not let that happen again. We didn't want to start off 0-1. We didn't want to lose at Mac Court."
"We moved the ball well this game. Their team was off-balanced and that opened up the lane."
Oregon State Coach Jay John
"We played well enough to win. Both teams started out slow."
"I thought our guys played well. We just never quite got ahead."
"We were trying to penetrate the middle and keep the floor spread. The turnovers hurt us."
"The problem is turnovers. I don't have an issue with shooting 49 percent from the field. We gave possessions away. That's a problem. I wish we wouldn't have thrown those chances away."
"As a team we still have a significant ceiling to shoot for. There is a lot of room for this team to grow and improve."
F Marcel Jones
"They made plays and we didn't. They got to all the open balls."
"We fought back. We played hard. Give credit to Oregon. They were the better team today. That's why we play twice."
