Joe Shoemaker Quotations

Obviously, that's the very worst performance we've had shooting all year.

James did a little bit better job in the second half of going down to the low block and trying to play down there. Jeremy's senior leadership, he did a good job in the second half of coming out a little bit more ready to play.

I'd contribute that to our bench. Our bench did a good job, as it had all season. That helped us be fresher at the end.

We can come out and win third. Right now you may not think of it as much, but down the road you'll see it as a positive. It will be a test of character playing that game.

I always knew he could score, but he improved other aspects of game as the season went along. And he really improved his passing. He would see a defense geared to stop him, and he did a good job of not forcing the shot and found open guys.

He had a great game. He hit a couple of shots outside that got his confidence going, and our guys did a good job recognizing when he was hot.

He got out in transition, got some easy buckets. He moved well on offense. He played a good game against Dexter Friday night, so he's starting to shoot the ball a little bit better for us.

He got up and down the floor. He got some open looks in transition. He really excels in the game in transition. He didn't play very well the last game and he wanted to play a little bit better tonight.

Our bench did a great job again tonight as they have all year. It (gave) us a chance to be a little bit fresher, I believe, there at the end. We rotate a lot throughout the game. Like I said, it gives us a chance to maybe be a step quicker at the end.

It feels great. We've been here four years in a row, and its something we've talked about all year. One game doesn't make or break a season, but it feels good to get over the top. We've prepared for it all year and the kids should enjoy it tonight.

It feels good. I've been with these guys since junior high all the way up.

Typically, they pass about 20 times each possession when they get it on offense. So they're extremely deliberate. That's something that we haven't seen a lot of down in this area, so it'll be something new to us. I believe the challenge is getting the tempo up to where we want it to be.

We didn't play very well at the Christmas tournament. And we had to make some changes at half because we were down 15. To come back from that far down at Kelly says a lot about our character.

We didn't play very well defensively in the first quarter. We gave up 18 points in the first three or four minutes, but we played better the rest on the game.

We can't look past them. They've been a little bit up and down this year. We've got to come out and defend and work on that on first.

We rotate quite a bit and got a lot of playing time for everyone tonight.

We knew they weren't extremely deep, and we have been all year long. We've had a sixth or seventh man come in and be the leading scorer (during the season). Our guys off the bench tonight came in and defended well and ran the floor, and I believe that really helped us to stay fresh at the end.

These seniors have been in three district finals. We're as prepared as we can be (for the title game). I'd love nothing more than to win a district title, but we've got a tough game ahead of us (against South Iron).

It was a little out of the ordinary. Usually they have a translator, or they speak English.

They're a big, strong team. They're a good team all around. Any team that obviously has won state, they don't have a lot of weaknesses. They do like to slow the ball down (and) control the tempo. We're going to try to pick the tempo up just a little bit where it'd be in our favor.

They've got a lot of talent on the floor. I've had a chance to watch them a couple of times this year. They're quick (and) very athletic. Of course, they won districts last year and won the sectional game also last year. They've got some playoff experience.

Our defensive intensity finally picked up a little bit. We've been talking about trying to play better defense and playing with a little bit more energy. We started a little run there at the end of the second quarter and kind of kept it going from there.

Not just a whole lot. We just have to go down and defend, do what we can do and rebound the basketball.

I think our kids did a good job (against Bogan). He's a big guy -- he's bigger than us, taller than us, and our kids battled. That's all I can ask. He's hard to block off.

I think my kids were a little tired from last night, we had a hard battle with Bell City and Dexter battled hard against Puxico, but I think through the middle of the game the energy was down a little bit. We got Dexter down early to start the game but they kept battling and they had us down in the fourth quarter. I have to give our kids credit for not giving up there at the end.

He's (Limbaugh) done a great job for us. His knees are bad, he's really hurting, and he was one of our leading scorers from last year. But he has taken on the role of team captain and has done a great job with it. He really distributes the ball well inside to open people. He's a great passer.

All those guys are well-deserving of those honors. Without the team, the guys couldn't get those honors. We had great team play. I'm happy for them and proud for them.

Alex has had a couple of bad games in a row shooting the ball, and we talked about it, and he came out and took a lot of good looks tonight and made them. The team did a good job of realizing who was hot and getting the ball to him when we needed to.

That's really been one of our strengths, passing the basketball. These guys play so unselfishly. This is the best passing basketball team I've coached.

That's one thing that's helped us out throughout the course of the year. We've had seven or eight guys that have led us in scoring this year. (We have) guys that can come in off the bench and contribute a lot of minutes. Hopefully that's one of the things that will help us out the rest of the way.

That's something he's always done well throughout his career is penetrate and be able to score and create off that. He's done a good job of that this year.

It was by far the best we've shot from out there. We hit over 50 percent of our 3-pointers, and that's just a great percentage.

It's a tall task, but it's a challenge we're looking forward to. We've played some pretty good teams along the way so we'll just go up there, do what we can do and then enjoy it.

They're a tough team. They didn't shoot the ball well tonight. They missed some shots that they normally hit. I'm glad to come away with a win. Like I said, it will be big for district seeds.