Halftime Quotations | Page 5

The game was back and forth in the first half. Actually we never trailed, I think the game was tied at two and we never trailed from there. It was always close in the first half, a three to five point game for us. It pretty much stayed like that until halftime when we were up by three.

The Chief is performing at halftime of home football games. Unless something changes, that will be the case throughout the season.

All I know at halftime is he told us he couldn't go.

The MacMurray game on the 18th was probably the high point of the season so far. We were down at halftime and we came out in the second half and tied the game and then went on to win it. That was our first road win and I think it was a true show of character by the team.

The first goal was huge. It gave us a huge confidence boost, and we headed into halftime with some real hope.

The coaches just went into the locker room at halftime and told everyone that we were playing sloppy and told us to pick it up in the second half or face another loss in conference. Everybody picked it up.

The first quarter we got a little too excited. We didn't execute and we called a timeout. We really talked about it at halftime to really focus and execute. We knew our press offense could work against them. It was just a matter of getting out there and doing it. When the guys settled down it worked beautifully.

The first half was tough. There were so many fouls called, it was tough to get into a rhythm. Obviously it's good to go into halftime ahead. Charles made a great play. He drove and I just found an open spot and knocked it down. It gave us good momentum.

You can't expect one goal to hold up against them for 90 minutes. I knew at halftime we needed two or three more.

This is only halftime - we have to keep on our toes and do to the business at home. You have to be patient playing against 10 men, but we stayed calm and tried to come around the sides. But we kept out heads and tried to play our way.

It's the first time we've had a physician with us. It's a good thing we did because he stitched Spencer up at halftime or we wouldn't have had him otherwise.

I told (the team) at halftime that, if they wanted to win this game, they would have to find a way to stop those two. But no matter what we did, we couldn't stop them.

I told the team at halftime that we needed to pick up our scoring. We needed to get the ball into the post and be more patient on offense. When we did that, things just fell together. I was really happy with our overall play. This was a key week for us in the standings and I think winning both puts us in position to contend for a championship.

At halftime I challenged them a little bit. We came out flat with a low energy level, but we were able to generate offense from our defense in the second half.

At halftime I had to encourage Mallory to keep on shooting. Kristin is going to get her shots, but I sometimes have to get on Mallory about continuing to put the ball up.

At halftime I kind of let them have it for the whole halftime. We didn't really change anything ... the second half was about forcing their will on the game.

At halftime I said, 'I want to put up 60, and I want to hold (Gering) under 40.

At halftime I said we've played three really good halves of basketball. We didn't get that fourth half.

At halftime I think out of 47 points, 27 of them came out of either turnovers or second shots. And then in the third quarter, I think we were down 24, I looked they had 28 points off turnovers and we had two. And I think that's been the case all year.

At halftime I told my team that we really had to put the pressure on the Americans. This was a nice result and it was actually fun watching my team play.

At halftime I told the guys, 'hey you've got to bail me out here now'. They got that quick start, but our kids hung in there for the next three or four minutes. They went out there and kicked it up another notch.

At halftime I told them I felt they weren't playing with intensity. They were not mentally ready to play these guys.

At halftime I told them we probably didn't want to shoot 22 treys in the second half. But we also had to remember that's what they were giving us.

At halftime it was like walking into a morgue. We talked about defense and rebounding. Maybe it's happening because we're playing a lot of kids and we get out of a rhythm on defense.

At halftime they were talking to each other and disagreeing with each other. This team is alive and it is not down to just one moment of individual skill.

At halftime they were up 10, and then in the second half they just outplayed us and out-muscled us. We got beat in just about every phase of the game. The only thing they did well was they worked hard and hustled, but other than that we didn't do many things well.

At halftime we decided we had to get physical with those guys. In the second half I thought we knocked them off their back.

At halftime we felt that as long as we are patient and do a good job with possession we could get the goal back. ... When you are down a goal and you're trying to push to get the goal there are going to be situations that will allow the game to open up and that's what happened. You still have to make the defensive plays out of those situations and tonight we didn't.

At halftime we got down on ourselves but we kept talking to the kids telling them to keep their heads up and keep plugging.

At halftime we had a little talk. And somehow, we started playing aggressive basketball. I complimented player No. 1 through No. 10 for playing tough in the second half. It was a great team effort.

At halftime we just talked about being a little more aggressive and making our shots count. We had opportunities to score in the first half, we just didn't convert.

At halftime we knew we could make a run at them. Our consistency this season has been terrible. We need to find a way to get ourselves up and be aggressive against every team.

At halftime we picked up the intensity and took it to them for most of the second half.

At halftime we stressed ball control and getting physical.

At halftime we talked about being aggressive. We needed to get more aggressive and get to the free throw line. With our interior players we should get to the free throw line more than we did in the first half.

At halftime we talked about giving them a step one on one. Everybody is so worried about giving up a 3. Nobody shoots better than 33 percent (out there).

At halftime we talked about how they had to set a personal goal of getting to ground balls with the mindset that every ground ball belongs to us.

At halftime we talked about lack of focus. I thought we did a pretty good job the second half of staying focused.

At halftime we talked about not wanting our season to end. The players stepped up in the fourth quarter, making big play after big play. It is amazing how they willed themselves to the victory. They are definitely a special bunch of players.

At halftime we talked about rebounding and taking care of the ball. Whoever has the fewer turnovers will win the game.

At halftime we talked about some second looks that they had gotten. They're really a scrappy team. I knew we had to go to the boards hard. We discussed that at halftime, and I stressed it quite a bit.

At halftime we talked about that we weren't moving enough. We didn't come to play in the first half. We came out and picked it up. The defense picked it up big time.

At halftime we tried to get that fear out of them and we responded.

At halftime we were getting outplayed and we talked about taking it up another notch. We had a height advantage and the kids played with a lot of heart.

At halftime we were up by 14, and we talked about trying to get up by 24 or 25, or it was going to be a game. We came right out and scored and knew the game was for our taking.

I told them and halftime that we were playing down to a different level. We had to rise up and make them play to our level. We came out and played hard, and I challenged the seniors and they were able to step up.

I told them at halftime it will come, we just had to patient.

I told them at halftime that offensively I was only unhappy with one thing, and that was that 8.3 percent shooting from the 3. Those are shots that we normally make. So I said there was only one thing to do: keep pulling the trigger.

I told them at halftime that the reason the game was close was that we weren't playing defense. We were playing defense with our arms instead of moving our feet.

I told them at halftime that we needed to be better defensively. We weren't moving our feet well in the first half and they were getting some easy shots. I asked them to step it up, and man, they did.

I told them at halftime that we were playing a little too intense. We needed to calm down. We need to find our players and play the ball to their feet.

I told them at halftime they've only got 16 minutes left in their season. We got off to a really slow start, but I thought we played good on defense. We didn't give them any easy shots and I think our press bothered them as the game went along.

I told them at halftime to get more aggressive. We did get more aggressive on both ends of the court.

I told them at halftime to play like it was 0-0. Keep putting the pressure on them, keep taking the shots.

I told the girls at halftime that we were lucky to be down just five points. It was not a very pretty first half for us.

I told the girls at halftime to keep playing hard and I think in second half they did it even more. We thought we could get into them defensively and make them work to get the ball up the floor.

I told the guys after the game, they never cease to amaze me. Halftime I told them I thought we didn't have our heads in the game. I said, I don't know where this is going to take us, but I know we don't have a chance if we don't get our heads into it.

I told the guys at halftime that's why everybody practices. We just needed to be patient, get into our offense, and not let them get a run.

I told the guys at halftime that this was a game of little spurts. When we came out of the locker room and made that run to start the third, I thought we were asserting ourselves. But give Lewisburg credit, they came right back, answered and re-took the lead.

I told the guys at halftime that was the best half we've seen of Renton basketball. And they said, 'Coach, we've got a lot more coming.' And that's good to know.

I told the guys at halftime we had to get some full court pressure going and hopefully get them to turn it over. We really worked hard defensively, got some steals and converted.

I told the kids at halftime that if we didn't defend the paint it was over. We had to give them the three ... I figure if they make them after not making them for 14 games, god bless 'em they deserve to beat us.

I told the kids at halftime that it's get after it on defense or our season is ending.

I told the kids at halftime they were still in the game and they had to go out there and play like they wanted it.

I told the kids at halftime to forget about Monday - it's about today. If you win today, you're in the NCAA tournament. It's March now, and I'm running out of things to say.

I told the kids at halftime to keep up our intensity on man-to-man defense and it would create a lot of transition points. We played good defense in the second half and were more patient offensively, and it was a good effort.

That's our strength. We didn't have many fast-break points that I can remember in the first half. We had to take advantage of our transition game. That's where we score a lot. Coach told us at halftime we have so much depth and we have to play hard enough to use it.

Art got a little ding to his ankle. We put ice on it and taped him up at halftime and he was fine. We decided we would bring him back if we need him; fortunately we didn't. We missed him though because he is a go-to-guy for us. It was a nice test to play without him.

You can't leave points off the board like that, especially against a team that's going to kill you on the run. They did a good job making adjustments at halftime and slowing us down.

They must have talked about playing some (defense) at halftime because second half they came out and played a whole different kind of 'D' than we saw in the first half. They were out in the passing lanes ... everything was hard.

They had the momentum coming out of halftime and we had to get our intensity back.

They got all the boards. We just said at halftime we have to stop letting them get those offensive boards. We plan on making it to Saturday's (title) game.

They got a run to open up a lead right before halftime and then we came out after halftime and cut it to seven, but we turned the ball over a couple of times and let it get back up to 19.

They got eight offensive rebounds on us in the first half. We talked about it at halftime and did a much better job in that area in the second half.

They got momentum right away and I really thought our mindset hurt us. We were all of sudden playing not to lose. At halftime we said we need to turn that around and try to be the aggressor.

There were some fluke things early in the game that you usually don't see happen. To be down so early, though, and then come back and lead at halftime tells you something about this football team.

There were times tonight when this team could have folded its tent. We're not as good as we think we are. I told them at halftime that it was gut-check time, that they needed to show what this team was all about. They finally stepped up and made big plays when they needed to. I was very pleased with their enthusiasm and effort at the end.

It wasn't until halftime that I shut down.

It was exciting because we were down coming out of halftime and then we had a good drive to go score a touchdown. That's about it.

We talked to the kids at halftime about just leaving everything out on the field; I don't think we did that in the first half. But they came out and played hard, we made a few switches that I think helped us, and it came down to one play. That's why you've got to play 80 minutes. In the second half I couldn't be prouder of their effort.

We understand that halftime shows, homecoming and other presentations are important to our institutions. So the allowance is there.

We went in at halftime and it was 20-3. We dug the hole, and at that point, we're pretty good at putting you in and putting the dirt on top of you.

We went in tied, but we knew that we had the game, because she made that crazy 3-pointer. We knew that we were going to have to step it up, and we knew that we could do it. We came back out after halftime pretty confident.

We missed on some opportunities inside early in the ball game. If we get those opportunities early in the game, we're up at halftime by a big margin.

We challenged the girls at halftime to step up.

We challenged Timmy at halftime to really get in his face.

We changed a little bit at halftime and came from the perimeter and that probably had as big an effect as anything we did in the game.

We felt real good where we were at halftime being up by three with Benny hitting that shot. The second half has been ours all year. The kids have done an excellent job of executing and playing great defense in the second half.

It was our ability to pressure their guards so they couldn't quite run their offense. Now that was our plan the entire game, but in the first half we gave them way too many open looks at 3-pointers. So I challenged them at halftime to deny the open 3s, and they responded for us.

I told our guys at halftime that Carolina was going to make a run and that we had to stay together, remain focused.

I told our guys at halftime that he was going to come back and play. He's a really good player; we had the opportunity to see that. He came in and hurt us a lot.

I told our guys at halftime that we couldn't give them any second-chance points and we'd have to control the paint. I told them they'd have to beat us from the outside.

I told our guys at halftime the most important thing is that we fought for 40 minutes. There are no moral victories to being ahead at halftime. I think the experience more than anything from last year helped us through this one.

I told our team at halftime to not relax and stay after it. We made adjustments and came out and executed.

I told him at halftime to stay up because we may need him. I had no hesitation in the decision. I've seen him do it countless times in practice. I'm real proud of the way he came through.

I told Matt at halftime that he had to shoulder the load. We always put a lot on his shoulders, but I told him that now he had to do a little bit more.

I told my assistant at halftime that we couldn't keep up with this pace. But we actually exceeded it.

It's a big win because of the way we won. That wasn't our style of game. I told them at halftime that we're not very good at football, but we've got to play football. We had to be strong and go at the basket.

It was sort of a Super Bowl halftime show writ large.

It was the defense. The coach gave us a halftime speech, more or less to get us motivated on defense, to play harder. We did a good job of sharing the ball and took some great shots.