26 Quotes by Wendell Jeffries

One of the things we emphasized tonight was the third quarter. Usually we have a slow third quarter with or without the lead and we outscored them by nine and that was something we were looking for.

I give these guys a lot of credit. Wheaton Academy is a very well-coached team. They are very disciplined and can shoot the ball.

I think you have to give them credit for playing well. They came in here in a seventh-place game and played about as well as they can play.

I thought the effort at both ends of the court was there tonight, and I thought the teamwork was there. We're starting to get some guys back healthy, and Isiah (Anderson) is back in the rotation which helps stabilize things.

That (concern) was warranted. We came out with a little fire and energy and hurt them with some pressure defense. We got up to, what, a 10-point lead? But we're in a transition period, trying to learn how to play with a lead. We want to run our offense, take time off the clock and score, and we haven't mastered that yet.

It didn't really mean anything. They'd already beaten West Chicago by 26 and 36 points in the first two meetings, so in the back of their minds, they knew they could just show up and win, and that's what they did. With an extra day of rest and preparation, they'll be ready to go.

We played hard and we played good defense. We just didn't shoot well. People can preach team (play) and people can preach defense, (but) it doesn't matter if you can't put the ball in the hole.

We played (with) the fifth-ranked team in the state on their home floor. It was a valiant effort by the kids.

We'll still compete, but it will a challenge because we're so young. With all our young players, the future looks bright.