Halftime Quotations | Page 6

It was the exact same play in the first quarter. I had my hands on it, but I dropped it. I told myself at halftime that if I have another opportunity to try and come up with a play, I would, and that's what I did.

It was a sudden thing right before half, but at halftime coach asked me if I was ready to go back in. I said we could give it a go.

It's a disappointing loss because of the way we played. We didn't play particularly well in the first-half. Yet we had a two-point lead and they didn't have Webber. We just came out after halftime really flat and looked bewildered. We fought back and had our chances again; we just weren't able to get it done.

We had to be physical with them. I told the team at halftime that in order for us to win this game it was going to take hard work.

We had a heck of a first half. We were down eight, came back and took the lead at the half. At halftime I told them, 'They're going to come back. They're a quality team.' But we kind of went through the motions. We didn't push the ball. Was it anything they were doing? No. They weren't pressing us. We were content walking the ball up.

We just kept scratching. I told our guys at halftime that I thought our first half was as soft defensively as we'd been all year. And we started our third quarter out the same way. They got three or four open shots and I had to burn two timeouts but then I thought our bench, even though they were outscored in a big way, was the reason we won the game.

We kind of weathered the storm. We felt like at halftime we had kind of taken their best shot.

We knew -- even with the halftime lead that they had -- they're so well coached, and they have such good athletes, they weren't going to quit on us. And they gave us everything we wanted in the second half. Credit their kids for that.

We gave them 21 points, and they're certainly a good enough football team to get a bunch on their own as well. We were embarrassed by our performance in the first half. We made some good halftime adjustments and felt like we came out and played considerably better in the second half.

We go in 13-6 at halftime and it might be a different mentality. Letting them score in the last two minutes in the first half, it gave them some momentum.

We got a halftime talk that defense was everything, and we had to pick it up or we were going to be on the losing end. That would have put all our program's done this year down the drain.

We got a telling-off at halftime and were much better in the second half. Our main aim before the game was to get a good start and keep their confidence low, but they got a lift and we didn't get out of first gear at all.

This was real big. We came in at halftime (up 24-6) and were remembering last week (ahead 20-7), and we were not going to let that happen again. We weren't going to let up.

We just gave them a few basic instructions and they didn't really do what I asked them to do. I asked them at halftime, they play a very compact game and they like to start everything in the middle and work their way out, so I asked our guys at halftime to start playing the ball wider and over the top of their last offender and they just didn't do it as much as they should have.

We just told the girls at halftime that in order to win, we would have to play some defense. We were allowing them too many opportunities in the first half.

We just made a little adjustment at halftime pertaining to their secondary break, and offensively we played better. We started moving the ball, we got some easy baskets in transition off our defense, and we were a little more poised and patient.

We just played real lethargic the whole first half. They got a good chewing at halftime and came out and went on a huge run. ... We went out in the third quarter and just lit it up on the scoreboard and played real hard defense.

We talked about it at halftime and it's not that the game slipped away from us and we got behind 28-7, it was almost as if we forced ourselves to be behind 28-7.

We tried to pinpoint what we do best. We said at halftime we wanted to win the second half.

It's funny, we usually shoot pretty well (at the Shirk Center). Regardless at how bad we shot, we were still ahead at halftime and we wore them out.

It's frustrating. We played great until the last seven minutes. We just couldn't finish (the game). But this was our third game on the road in five days against three very good teams. To be down by a goal on the road at halftime and to come back showed a lot of character.

This is what we've done all year. The thing we talked about at halftime was to give ourselves a chance to walk out with our heads held high, and the only way we could do that was giving the maximum effort. The guys did that. After the first half, that's the only thing you can ask for.

This is why we put so much emphasis over and over on winning the regular season. In halftime talks, in late-game situations, we said we want the tournament at our place.

I couldn't be happier with our performance. It starts with defense and ours was superb tonight. I thought we were hurt off their dribble penetration, but we made adjustments at halftime and were ready for it in the second half. And we were great around the basket. I think we got to nearly every loose ball.

I challenged (Finch) at halftime ? I challenged all of them at halftime ? but I think I made her mad. Sometimes that's good.

I challenged Omar, Mike (Hall) and Regis at halftime and told them: 'You haven't scored yet. You guys have got to step up.' And we responded the way we should at home. I was very proud of the way we finished the game.

I challenged our guys at halftime because I saw no sweat on anybody's part. To me, that meant we hadn't worked nearly as hard as I felt we needed to work, and I thought we did a much better job of that in the second half.

I challenged out team as a whole, and maybe we did a gut-check on our manhood so to speak. But basically, the majority of the halftime was spent with the defensive adjustments. And fortunately, the adjustments paid off for us.

I challenged the girls at halftime to take a charge at the beginning of the third quarter and Lindsey Rodgers did it. The girls took it up another notch on both ends of the floor.

I challenged the kids to come out of halftime with a defensive stand. Holding them to two points in the third is what put away the game for us.

I challenged them a little bit at halftime to get more aggressive, which is what they did, ... When we get aggressive, good things happen. What you saw in the second half is how we need to play.

I asked our girls at halftime if they wanted to give away their home-court advantage for the playoffs. Then we came out and put together a solid second half.

I asked them what they are trying to do to me, two games in a row trying to make it interesting, so the fans don't leave at halftime. My halftime speech was that we had to turn it on right here. We were either going to let them stay in the ball game and have a chance to win it or we can put it away. Hopefully it isn't a trend that keeps up.

For someone to actually change the understanding of language with this whole idea of halftime is just a testimony to how God has used this guy.

For the first part of the game, we were equal or better (than Hunters Lane). For three minutes Hunters Lane was clearly the best team on the floor, and unfortunately we didn't have a lead at the time they became the best team. Give them credit. We had a good game plan. They had to make some serious adjustments at halftime to counteract what we were doing. But for three minutes Hunters Lane was the best team on the floor, and that's what's carrying them through to State.

He played pretty well tonight. A lot of times he scores a quiet 31, but I didn't think so tonight. We looked out of sorts and every time we needed a basket he would come through. That 3 he hit just before halftime was big. We were stuck on 23 for like four minutes.

(Head coach Dennis) Murphy got on me at halftime and I took that as a challenge. I went out with more intensity in the second half.

All of their touchdown passes came off of screens. It wasn't until halftime that I was able to match them up in man coverage. It was a coaching mistake.

All of practice on Friday was keying on Kennedy's strengths and learning all we could about them because they're such a great team. Because of that and the way the game was going in the first half, we were very confident in ourselves at halftime that we could come back and get this game.

The longer the game went without us scoring the more pressure we were putting on ourselves. We took the attitude at halftime that we just needed to settle down and play the easy game ... take the easy pass. We felt like we were the stronger team and we were pressing too hard.