Byron Utter Quotations

Possessions are also really key. Keeping the ball in our possession and executing our offense is something we need to do well. We've been a good team all season long of taking care of the basketball. I think there's been 10 or 12 games where we've been under eight turnovers. Those two things are the keys for any one of the teams in the tournament. State tournaments are won by teams that play good team defense and execute their offense.

I coached against John Bruce 20 years ago. That used to be a big rivalry for us at Langford.

I think (that experience is) an advantage for us. They've also been to two state volleyball tournaments. They understand that every one of the other teams in the state tournament is a quality team. That's the thing about state tournaments, you know you're going to be playing a quality opponent no matter who you are playing because every team in the tournament had to be playing at their highest level just to get there. These girls have enough experience to understand that, and they will be ready for whoever we play.

That's the thing with Dell Rapids, you can't let them get out to a fast start. We certainly couldn't chase them man-to-man. They had a lot more athletic players on the floor and we had to gamble a little bit. They're a very good inside team, and they're a very good outside team. But you can't stop both. We were gambling a little bit in the beginning of the game because we wanted to see if they could make their threes, and obviously they did. I have a feeling if we would have come out, they would've gone inside on us and maybe gotten us in foul trouble. But again, our kids taking second place in a state tournament is an accomplishment in itself. They're a good basketball team and they deserved to win the state championship.

Britton's program has turned the corner a little bit. I've watched them play. They're really athletic.

This is a big test for us. They're pretty balanced. We're used to keying on a few people right now.

If you would have told me before that we would have held them to 39 points, I would've taken that in a heartbeat. Our kids just didn't make the shots and that happens once in a while, but unfortunately for us that happened at the state tournament.

The first half we played pretty tight. But they were doing a nice job on us defensively, too. The second half, we adjusted.

It puts us in a tough situation sometimes when you have a 6-5 girl. You know if you lose, it's going to be 'Well, why didn't they get the ball to the big girl more often?' But we have some players who shoot the ball pretty well.

They're big and they push the ball up the court. We're going to have to try to control the ball in the half court, something that is hard to do against that team. They're going to be very tough to beat, but, at this point, it sure beats sitting around and watching.