Postgame Quotes
January 30, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 30, 2010
East Carolina Head Coach Mack McCarthy
On Tonight's Game
"It's a pretty simple storyline - it was a tale of two halves. I don't know why we were like we were in the first half. I was really excited, I thought the kids were excited and I thought we practiced pretty well all week. We still let missing shots get to our defense. We've been talking about that for a while now and we have to get past that. When you don't make shots, you have to play that much harder."
On His Team's Match-Up Problems Against Rice
"It was a hard match for us. They had bigs who could take us away from the basket and shoot the three or they could drive on us. They were too big for us at some spots."
On His Team In The Second Half
"The second half was totally different. We had a lot more energy. I thought we were the aggressor on defense. We got more of our share of the loose balls and 50-50 balls. We also rebounded the basketball better and took better care of the ball. We made things a little simpler offensively and attacked them.
"Down the stretch, their zone got us standing around a little bit. We didn't get as many good shots in the last five minutes as we had earlier in the second half."
On Darrius Morrow's Game
"Certainly Morrow really played hard. I thought we did a decent job of getting him the ball. He made some incredible plays through some contact and double teams."
Junior Jamar Abrams
On Tonight's Loss
"We played hard and did the things we were supposed to do. We should have been on the winning side. Unfortunately, we come away with a loss."
On The Team's Play In The Second Half
"We dug down and got some stops like we should have in the first half. We did the things we were supposed to do. We know what can happen when we go on a run. We couldn't pull it out, but we did do some good things tonight."
Sophomore Darrius Morrow
On His Second-Half Performance
"We adjusted to the double teams. We started getting deeper post touches so I could just turn around and score, beating the double teams. I also just told myself that I was going to rebound every time."
On The Team's Play Tonight
"In the first half we just came out flat with a lack of energy. In the second half, we came out and played hard and tough. We just couldn't pull it out."
