8 Quotes by Tony Pittman

I wish we could have played all four quarters like that. We've been relying on our defense to get us going by creating turnovers. We didn't do a good job of that to start with, but in the last part of the third quarter and the fourth we really clamped down and were able to take control of the game.

I said, if it's going to be done, you're the ones who will have to do it. That's the way it should be. It's taken off from that point. We're having fun now. Even in a close ball game, you can see them smiling and having fun out there. And that's what you want at this stage.

We had great energy tonight, on both ends. We worked really, really hard to limit them to one shot and take away what they wanted to do. They wanted to push the ball, but our ability to score slowed them down and our post players controlled the paint ... It was a total team effort. I'm so proud of them.

We were really rushing, I felt like, early in the ball game. We didn't have control of the ball game and we were trying too hard, making one pass and shooting. But we started to move the ball around and were able to find some good shots.

This was a big ball game. The whole week, we'd talked about treating it like a playoff game. They were real focused and ready to play.

The third quarter has been kind of our downfall this season. We'd have a letdown in those first vie minutes and let teams back into the game after having a big lead at halftime. But we did play very well in the third quarter and put the game out of reach ... The energy we came out with was right where we need to be for the playoffs.

It's tournament time. There's a different focus. There things this team wants to accomplish. We don't want to put our uniforms up yet.

Anytime you hold a team to seven second-half points, you've got to be pretty happy as a coach. When we fell behind in the first quarter, we had to go back to what wins ball games for us, and that's our defense.