Halftime Quotations | Page 2

Our last message at halftime was something that we had said early in training camp. We just reminded the players that battles are not won by digging in. If you dig in, you just become a target. Battles are won by attacking. The players did a very good job of that, and they can be proud of themselves.

Our defense wasn't as good as it could have been. They made some adjustments at halftime and it really worked for them.

I saw a lot of great combinations. I told our kids at halftime that I didn't think we were playing terribly. Rogers is just a very tough team to play against.

I was a little nervous at halftime just because I couldn't tell where we were as a team, if we were a little bit down or flat, ... What I realized is we've got some veteran guys who weren't necessarily going to panic even though we didn't play as well as we thought we could in the first half. They just went out there and did their job better.

I was a little nervous there for a while, but I always believed we would win this game. I told my guys at halftime that we had to cut the lead down to eight by the end of the third quarter. Once we did that and got it to within three in the fourth, I knew it was ours for the taking.

I think both teams kind of settled in defensively. We came out flat. Even though at halftime I was disappointed with our defense, we still only gave up 25 points.

Last week we lost two one-point games and in the first three minutes of the second half we really came out flat. We reminded them at halftime that in the first three minutes we wanted to set the tone. Well, we didn't set the tone. Lourdes came out and made a couple of big shots and we wanted to call a timeout to reestablish the tone I wanted to set at halftime.

Kyle's been unstoppable. We made some adjustments at halftime to get him the ball more.

Last time, we kind of got embarrassed at their place. They really took it to us - it was 31-13 at halftime - so we've got a bit of a revenge factor going for us.

I reminded him of what we said at halftime last week: 'We're going to ride you. Let's go.'

Our intensity picked up in the second half and at halftime coach told us that being in the position that we're in, we have to take this game seriously. I thought we buckled down defensively in the second half. We talked more. We got deflections. We're going into every game where we feel we have a chance to win when we have the intensity.

Our halftime talk was all about defense. We didn't even write anything on the board.

Our kids didn't quit. We talked at halftime and on our opening drive we go down and score. In the second half our defense held them to 47 yards of total offense. We came back in the second half, but we just came up a little bit short.

Our guys decided at halftime we weren't going to let this game get away. That's what it amounted to.

Our kids showed a lot of character. Things weren't going right in the first half. They decided at halftime that we were going to get back into this game. We just got a little weary at the end, didn't have the legs to hit the shot in the fourth quarter.

Man, I was in there squeezing some boards down. We talked a lot at halftime to keep pushing it and keep getting better.

It hasn't been typical that we come out after halftime flat like that. We have lost a whole bunch of games by 10 points or less this year. We're struggling to get over the hump.

I stressed the point at halftime that we had 110 yards in penalties and Duluth had 100 total yards of offense. I told our guys that if we kept that up, we were going to have a hard time winning the game.

I thought he had a tremendous floor game. I mentioned to him at halftime that I thought he played a tremendous first half. ... It was beautiful to watch him play that way.

I thought he saw the ball very well today. I thought they had a number of opportunities early, where they had some good shots, and Pete came up big for us. To keep them to two goals at halftime was really good for our defensive confidence.

I was just trying to get on the board with this offense. They shut us down pretty much in the first half, but right before halftime we were able to get outside on the quick pitch and coordinated that into the second half.

I talked to the guys at halftime and basically said that we were not as competitive. I thought that the second half they played exceptionally well. In these type of games, it takes a lot of time to get used to playing with guys. Every guy did something in a very positive way.

I think with the sophomores playing in their last home game, they were a little more focused on that than the actual game at first. We tried to tell them at halftime that there's been a lot of people who have supported them since they've been here, and they owed it to them to go 100 percent the rest of the way.

I think at halftime we realized we were probably putting a little bit too much on Eli and we went back to running the ball and doing basic things.

Our challenge to the players at halftime was can we put this team away. But we couldn't do it.

Our run was a great answer to their run. This is something that has plagued us all year. We would have a halftime lead and find a way to squander it away and then struggle in the second half to get it back. I think when we switched defenses was a big factor, and we also just stuck some shots when it counted.

Our audience is looking for an alternative to the Super Bowl halftime show and we felt that the new MTV2 fit the bill perfectly,

Our general rule is that when we can get five players to score in double figures, we win. I had no idea Nate had a triple double, though. I only knew he had 10 assists at halftime and the last time that happened, we lost, so I wasn't even sure I should say something.

Our goal is to come out and play hard for 48 minutes. We were a little star-struck coming out. Then, we realized they put their pads on like we do, and we came out and made a game of it, ... My first comment to them at halftime was, 'did everybody get an autograph.'

I think he's the most complete big kid in the state of New Jersey. He asked me at halftime if he could guard(Harris) in the second half.

I think I need to give my halftime speech before the game.

I think Charles Barkley kick-started us. I heard at halftime he said the game was over. I'd like to thank Charles for kick-starting us.

I won't wait till halftime to say it, ... I think a lot of people know how I feel about running the ball.

I will talk to him and see what's happening. He told me and the staff at halftime that he couldn't go. Now, there's stuff filtering out that there's frustration there. We'll see.

It felt terrible but I was glad I played all the way through so I didn't have to sit down and have it stiffen up. It stiffened up real bad at halftime but I managed to get through it.

Just to get that thing to six at halftime took a lot of effort. I've seen that before. You're almost in a trap in a situation, where their best scorer (Grier) doesn't play, they lose a game probably everybody in Minnesota thought they should have won. ... Good teams come back after a situation like that, and we happened to be the next game.

I think that's because we heard what the record was at halftime and we were drilling too hard for that record and the record for total points (150). (The North) started coming back, slowly but surely. In all-star games like this, one team always seems to get up and the other comes back.

I think we came out of halftime a little flat. They came out and attacked us. We missed a couple key shots that I thought we should have made and we didn't react well to that.

It had a great effect on the game. But the key was the two we scored going into the wind in the first half. In the second half we settled down. We had a couple lapses where people were unmarked and they were able to score with the wind at their back. We adjusted after halftime and moved the ball real well.

It had been kind of ignored before that. Disney would do halftime with characters dancing on the field, that kind of stuff. It's become much more intense over the years.

I think we just assumed that Snow wasn't going to come out and play as hard as they did. By halftime we realized that that was not the case and that if we didn't pull it together we were going to be in trouble.

I think we deserve it. We have had some good results at home and away from home. Tonight we should have won, even though we were two down but we felt we could get something. We said at halftime that 30 of the 45 minutes we played some decent stuff and felt we were in charge. There was just a period of eight to 10 minutes where we lost it and they got both their goals. It took a couple minutes after giving up the second one before we got back in it.

I think we were a lot sharper in the second half. We came out flat in the beginning. At halftime we knew we had to get physical. Barrow played a game tonight.

I think we were distracted with Senior Night in the first half. At halftime we refocused and put our energy in defense and rebounding. And our guys responded to play the way they can.

I thought our defensive effort was great. At halftime we had only given up four field goals, and those came from outside. We set the tone defensively that we were not going to let them get to the basket.

I thought our kids did a good job of coming out of halftime and refocusing. And our offensive line took control of the game.

I thought after halftime we played more like a team. We had better ball movement and we weren't forcing shots like we were in the first.

I thought Dane Hughes played a very good ballgame. Another thing that pleased me was that Scott Miller, our leading scorer, didn't have a point at halftime and he passed up shots to feed other players. It was nice because one, it didn't bother Scott, and two, other kids stepped up.

I thought Dwight really dominated in the first half. They made some good adjustments after halftime and their bench really contributed. It was tough to match their intensity.

I thought we came out ready to play. (Willard) got off to a big halftime lead against us two years ago, so we thought it was crucial that we get off to a good start tonight.

I thought we showed a lot of heart in the second half. We kind of challenged them at halftime to play a little tougher.

I think we had a lot of confidence coming out at halftime that we had saved our best for the second half. We were playing good defense and we knew what we needed to do.

I thought the second unit really gave us a lift defensively. I told the first unit at halftime that I thought it was a sub-par performance defensively and we have to thank the second unit for being in the lead at the half.

I was not worried at halftime at all. But then we come out and only score two points in the third quarter - you just can't win like that.

I was not mad at all, that didn't bother me one bit. I was in a game where we were up 42-0 at half, then ended up winning 49-42, so only being halftime, there was nothing wrong with what they did. Halftime is way too early for you to stop thinking about scoring.

I wasn't pleased with our defense in the first half and I challenged them at halftime to come out and play Skowhegan basketball.

We were sleepwalking for a while, but we got after the team at halftime and challenged them. They responded. We played some great defense.

We were sluggish during the second half. Fortunately, we had the big halftime lead. We will have to be ready for a good challenge against Andrew. It should be a good game.

We were sluggish the first half, especially defensively. We were giving them too many open looks. We challenged the guys at halftime to play harder, and we did play with better energy.

We were so ready to play and had great energy and a great push there in the first half. One of the things we talked about at halftime was the game was 0-0, and that was the type of mentality we had to have going out into the second half.

We had opportunities to score some points off turnovers but then we would turn the ball over ourselves. We talked about that to the kids at halftime and now I kind of wish we didn't because we came out in the third quarter and turned the ball over again.

We came out at halftime totally casual. Just kind of winging the ball all over the place, acting as though they were going to give us the game. We've done this so many times now. The only word I can think of is unacceptable.

We came out at halftime trying to pressure them as they only had eight guys. That would make them tired and cause some turnovers.

We came out hard in the second half, which made up for our slow start. We knew at halftime that we should have been ahead by a lot more, and we feel pretty good after finishing strong.

We came out in the third and the three kind of got us going. I was calm at halftime and just told the girls that they weren't playing.

We came out lackadaisical in the first half, but coach yelled at us at halftime and got us going. We came out in the second half and played as a team and got good results.

We came out of halftime a little bit flat.

We came out of halftime running and pressing and I just got some opportunities.

We came out of the halftime fresh and they came out like they had played four quarters. They got moving eventually, but I thought that was the difference.

We were sort of against the ropes a little bit, but we made some big baskets going into halftime and boosted the lead up.

We were still in high spirits at halftime because we knew we would have the wind at our back.

You have those fumbles right before halftime and give a team like that a short field, and that's going to hurt. We have to rebound and get our focus back together and raise our whole level of football before next game.

To be down 11 at halftime (Thursday) and come out and play so well to start the second half - we have to stop doing that.

We are in the same range we've been in since the beginning of December, ... Halftime Report.

To go from 16 points at halftime to 50 at the end was because of our defense.

We have had runs like that, but usually in the fourth quarter. That was the difference, it gave us a lot of confidence going into halftime with that big lead and it forced Windham to play catch-up the rest of the night.

Wade was sensational. We said at halftime that he would try to take the game over in the second half, and he did. He's a special player.

We just didn't have any intensity starting out. We made some adjustments at halftime and spent the second half trying to come back. Our guys didn't give up.

We just didn't play very well. I thought they were very aggressive and we talked at halftime that we felt we were very fortunate to only be behind by 10 points.

We just didn't score. They had 12 points at halftime and yet they were within a point. And the longer it remained a close game, the more pressure I think we felt was because of the finality of this single elimination.

We could have been 3-0 down at halftime and in the second half as well.

We could have quit, but coach told us at halftime the game wasn't over. They've got a lot of talent coming back. I think we got things turned around and are heading in the right direction.

I was really impressed with the kids at halftime and how they were so calm and focused. They knew they were going to come back. They weren't going to let that game get away.

That's the only halftime speech I remember, and it wasn't really a speech at all.

That was a huge shot by Brittany there at the end of the half. That shot gave us the momentum heading into halftime and we were able to build on that.

That was probably the biggest moment of the game. I took a timeout when we were down 11 and I challenged my kids. I told the, 'Show me how much heart you have. Let's at least cut (the deficit) in half.' We got it down to six quickly and then it was, 'Let's tie it before halftime.' When we got to halftime and we were down by one we had the momentum.

That was something to behold -- it was another level. At halftime we were disturbed about the way we were playing. We came out, and Kobe just found a way to do everything.

We fought back after a horrendous first half where we really didn't play with much passion and we really showed signs of being a selfish team. That can't be what our team has to be about. We talked about some things at halftime and our guys really came out and fought and earned one of the toughest wins we've gotten all year long.

We fought for 80 minutes. The halftime kind of broke our momentum.

We were 6-for-12 at halftime from the free-throw line. In a game where there are 74 free throws, you've got to make yours to win.

We do it to try to set a tone. If you get the right chemistry and combinations, we know at halftime exactly what we're up against.

We played as well as we could play in the first half. I said to this team at halftime this is really about us going out and playing a better second half. Forget about the score and try to put it away and not let teams make runs on you like they have.

We put on sort of like halftime shows.

We came into halftime talking about getting out to a good start in the third quarter and whatever we had to do to make them call the first timeout. That's exactly what happened. Devin broke down the defense and I did what I do, just shoot the ball.

When you're down at halftime with the season we've had, it would have been easy to quit. They didn't. They fought back. That takes an incredible amount of heart and integrity.

We played three good quarters. We had a good first half. We had 40 at halftime and only 46 for the whole game (against Ray) last Friday night. We executed well.

We wanted to go deep. Coach came in at halftime and said they couldn't handle our speed on the outside, and we just wanted to stretch them vertically. We had to hit some deep balls because they were blitzing every time.

We had to turn it up and play hard. Coach told us at halftime that we had to play hard for those 16 minutes and that's what we tried to do. We just didn't play our game in the beginning at all. We were half-playing at the start and we didn't come out ready to play.

We had to work hard for our first two or three goals and then we kind of broke it open. We were only leading 3-1 at halftime but we kind of picked it up in the second half. We were able to get everybody involved and give everyone a chance to shine a little bit.

We had a little talk with the team at halftime and they seemed to respond.