Postgame Quotes
November 26, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 26, 2011
East Carolina Head Coach Jeff Lebo
Opening Statement
"It wasn't a pretty game from our standpoint, but I thought that Chowan had a lot to do with it. They are very fast, very quick, and very athletic. We had some spots inside where I wish we had played a little bit differently. We didn't start out very well. Defensively in the first have we were horrendous. We gave up buckets after made baskets on our end. We just weren't dialed in like we were against Appalachian State. In the second half we did a lot better job defensively.
"Erin Straughn was terrific. He was on the offensive glass, he made some shots, he had some timely offensive rebounds and put backs and scores that were big for our team. Maurice Kemp was very active in this game, especially on the glass with 12 rebounds as well as nine points. Darrius Morrow was again solid in the game. Miguel Paul is shooting the ball really well and at a high level. If we can get our two shooters on the wings all together here we will be fine."
On closing out the first half with a big run
"It was key for us to have a lead going into the halftime. They were scoring in the first 10 minutes on just about every possession coming down the court. We didn't react real well to lose balls and looked slow at times, but by the 10-minute mark of the second half) we finally got it under control."
Expectations moving forward
"All games are different. We are going from this type of team to a big and powerful team in Old Dominion and that's the way it is in basketball. We have to make adjustments and have (different) people step up each game because they are all different. That's just the way the games work, so we have to make a change now for the next game, going to Old Dominion. They are big, one of the biggest teams we will face to date, they can execute, and they are tough."
Junior Guard Miguel Paul
On closing strong in first half
"That was real important, it's a process, it doesn't matter what team, every time we come in here we got to play everybody tough. There was a point to get me and Mo (Darrius Morrow) going, but I think the biggest thing is getting someone else to step up and that was Erin (Straughn) and a lot of his rebounds led to our shots so I have to credit him. It was a big win in the process of us growing and continuing to get better everyday."
On the second half game plan
"We didn't have the intensity (in the first half) and we need to get more stops because they were shooting 57 percent and that's uncharacteristic of us. Then we held them to 27 percent, so we picked up the intensity on the defensive end. We just needed to be more aggressive."
Junior Forward Erin Straughn
On the tough play by Chowan
"There a pretty good ball club, that's what we expected, they were a smaller team and very good defensively and on the offense end. With the first half (Antonio) Reddic had, one of our goals in the second half was to limit his points. I think we did a good job of that."
On the game plan against Chowan and its leading scorer Antonio Reddic
"Just play solid `D'. He was more of a driver than a shooter and in the first half he did his thing. So in the second half we tried to limit his points. We played more aggressively on the defensive end and tried and frustrate him."
