Feb. 20, 2010
Recap | Final Stats
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Head coach John Groce
Opening Statement
Obviously we beat a really good basketball team today. Watching them on film, as each game went by I appreciated more and more how hard they played, how tough they were, how good they were defensively and how well they executed. I really like their two wings--Duggins and Brown--I knew it was going to be a challenge to defend those guys. I thought they came out in the first four minutes and they hit us in the mouth a little bit, especially in the rebounding part of things. They got us on the glass and I thought they kind of were setting the rules to start and then five or six minutes into the game our guys really turned it on and I thought the last 35 minutes is as good as we've defended all year. Our guys did a great job of playing team defense.
In the first half, obviously, we struggled offensively. I didn't like our flow and our rhythm. It's tough when you play against them because it's so crowded, and they do a good job of making you earn everything in the half-court, but in the second half we challenged our guys to get to the free throw line more. We shot 18 free throws in the second half versus three in the first half. I challenged our 4 and 5s to be more of a presence offensively and told our guys I want to throw the ball inside. We were able to do that. I thought that these two guys (DeVaughn Washington and Armon Bassett) really imposed their will in the second half at both ends. Their effort, their motor...it really started with their defense. I think they kind of fed off that and both of them ultimately ended up playing well offensively because they were playing so hard defensively. A lot of times that happens...when you give everything you can defensively, things will go your way on offense. There's no question that I thought these two--and our team--really imposed their will on them in the second half.
On holding Brown and Duggins to a low shooting percentage
Obviously that had a tremendous impact. I was concerned about both guys coming into the game. I thought that their 2 and 3 were really good. Our guys did a good job of helping one another off the ball, hedging screens and had great awareness. I thought Armon, (Tommy) Freeman and (Asown) Sayles did a good job of trailing those guys and not giving them anything easy. They got a few good looks here and there, but the bulk of it, for 40 minutes, we made it hard on them, I thought. That was an important part of our gameplan because we had such great respect for those two guys as scorers.
On the value of Bassett and Cooper's ball security skills
That's a big reason why, nationally, our turnover percentage is among the best in the country. Today we turned it over 13 times the entire game against a team that forces the sixth most. I don't know what we've been lately...we've had 25-12 (assists-turnovers) games, 12 assists and six turnovers I think in the game against Central...we take a lot of pride in that. Obviously it helps taking care of the ball when you have two guys that are point guards out there. We put a lot of pressure on Armon and D.J. to handle the ball for us, and they do a good job of taking care of it. That's a big part of winning basketball.
DeVaughn Washington
On what he was able to contribute to the victory
I thought that I brought a lot of energy and some toughness on D. When I came in I was looking to liven it up a little bit for us...we came out a big stagnant. I guess that was what I brought.
Armon Bassett
On if he was feeding off the energy of the crowd a lot
I like playing in front of big crowds and obviously we had a good turnout today. Our defense picked up and we've got to use our crowd to our advantage...we have good fans and they really helped us win this game today.
On how playing the point (when D.J. Cooper was in foul trouble) affected his performance Saturday
That's what I played my whole career, so it's something I'm used to. It's not my role on the team, but I'm going to do whatever Coach and the team need from me.
Wright State Head Coach Brad Brownell
On the game in general
From my standpoint, I'm very disappointed in our team's play today. I don't think we played with the same type of spirit or energy as we have in the last couple weeks. We had some opportunities to put Ohio away, and to their credit, we couldn't do it. Congratulations to Ohio. It was a good win for them.
On Armon Bassett
Armon Bassett certainly played tremendous basketball in the second half. He was the difference.
On overall play in this game
Sometimes you get out of league play and in the Horizon League, there is so much importance placed on being a one or a two seed, that's all we've been talking about for a month. Then we step out here, and that's no excuse not to win or play good. I don't know why our guys didn't seem to have more juice. Defensively, we were decent. We played pretty well for good stretches, but our offensive performance was very poor tonight. We were very impatient and took to many bad shots. We didn't do the things we needed to do.
On (Todd) Brown and (Vaughn) Duggins struggling to shoot the ball
It hurts us obviously. They're our two guys. Then (N'Gai) Evans got into some foul trouble, so he never really got going. We need one of those two guys to play well like they need Cooper or Bassett to have a good game. One of their guys had a good game, while neither one of our guys did. Our field goal percentage was atrocious, and I felt like we tried much too quickly to score in certain situations as opposed to working the ball. We were as impatient tonight as we've been in a long time.
