Mike McAfee Game Quotations

I can't say enough about how hard they played in that second half. If we could have done any of that in the first half, I think we could have turned the game around. In the second half there were so many places we could have turned it around, too. I can't say enough about the effort that the kids put out. It was amazing, it really was.

We played a good game except for getting the ball in the basket.

Spencer is our most improved player. He just turned up the dial this year. He got more confident in his ball handling ability. He got more confident in his shooting ability. He's a smart kid. He works hard. He's one of those kids that always asks how he can improve certain aspects of his game and then he's out there working on it.

That fourth quarter was like a game within a game. Jackson was working hard, and knocking down shots, and I felt our kids were working hard too. I was really proud of the way we maintained our composure. We stayed on the attack, on both ends. That made the difference for us. Our guards did a good job of controlling the ball, and getting everyone involved in the game. We finished the night with just nine turnovers, that stat alone is significant in our success. I'd be happy with that just about any night.

His leadership was definitely there. He did such a good job as a leader on the floor. Even when he wasn't in the game he was a leader on the floor and that was a really important part of our success for the year was having him accept that role. There were times when he took the team on his shoulders and carried them through - showed them the way, which is big. It shows a lot of heart, a lot of leadership and a lot of ability.

You can't match him on heart - he gives everything. Bill was a leader on the floor too. He was the one before every game that got the guys together for the group cheer - 'Who's house? Our house.' He's the one that took the initiative to make the warm-up CD. He's just a great young man. I can't tell you how much I appreciate everything he did for our basketball team.

It was a really good game and Taft has a good team. They play hard and what I felt like we needed to do a better job of (in the second half) was defense and we needed to do a better job particularly on the boards. Playing better defensively was what we talked about at halftime. And I thought we did. Our offense starts on defense. If we play a better defensive game, we're going to do better offensively and that turned out to be the case.