ECU, Rice Postgame Quotes
February 22, 2014 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 22, 2014
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East Carolina Head Coach Jeff Lebo
Opening statement
"That was a good win for our team. We had a great start. We were really alert and active. Defensively we were pretty good. It helped that they didn't have a great start. They went to their bench with a massive substitution and that calmed them down a bit. We were up 16 at the half and then had a bad start, but finally got some confidence to finish off the game.
"I did like our energy and I liked our enthusiasm, coming out after a big game. That was a big question mark for my team. We held them to 55 points and 8 of 29 from 3. Zangari was good during the game; he rebounded and scored some baskets for us. Paris made some timely buckets for us. He's been playing hurt with a swollen ankle, fighting to make it through practice so it was hard to seem him go down like that."
On Akeem Richmond breaking the school career record for 3s in just two years
"It's incredible. It's phenomenal. It's terrific to be able to break that record in just two years. I know it will mean something to him later. It doesn't mean much to him now; he's more concerned that we won the game. That's the right mentality to have. We still have some games left, but to do that in two years is just unbelievable.
Rice Head Coach Ben Braun
Opening statement "I'll answer any questions about the second half that you want. I have amnesia; I don't remember much about the first half. We obviously got off to a rough start. That's probably the roughest start we've ever gotten off to and ECU got off to a really good start. They were on fire; Richmond was obviously hitting shots. I think he really played with confidence. Once they hit the first couple of shots, the basket gets a little smaller (for us), and then we have to try and come back and match their offensive efficiency. We really struggled in the first half, but we made some changes that I think helped us in the second half. We got some aggression, some toughness, and the guys that came in really gave us some energy. We climbed back from 20-plus down to a two-point deficit with the ball and that's quite a climb. It was a good effort by our guys to climb back into this game."
On attacking the Pirates' zone in the second half
"We were more patient. We got to the seams of the zone and made plays out of there. We started doing a better job of attacking their seams because they're long and they've got some good athletes and you have to be patient; you can't come down. What they want, as most of us do, is for you to come down and just get complacent and to settle. We settled for really long, early shot clock attacks and that wasn't in our best interest. The end of the first half was a really good ending for us. We ran the clock down, got a layup and didn't have a lot of desperation shots."
Senior Guard Akeem Richmond
On breaking the ECU career 3-point record
"Someone actually informed me about it earlier in the week, and I can't lie, I was thinking about it. I told myself this morning that I was going to break it; I only needed five. I was really focused when I went out there tonight."
On getting its second straight win
"I'm feeling amazing right now. It's been a while since we had two wins in a row, so it's definitely a confidence booster. We can't become complacent. We have to continue to work hard and prepare for Charlotte on Thursday night."
On Rice's second half comeback: "We did let up defensively, and you can't take anything away from Ramijak, and he really got hot. All of the coaches told us that he was a pretty big shooter, so that's on us. We can't let up once we get up big."
On Michael Zangari's recent performances
"I've been telling Mike that he's been playing well for us. Not just these past three games, but he's been playing well for us all season. He's stepping up, and this is what we see every day in practice. He worked hard all summer, and it's finally paying off."
Sophomore Forward Michael Zangari
On building such a large lead
"We knew we had to come out and get up on them early. They're a good team, but everyone in this conference is good. They got rolling and it was hard to hold them off, but we took care of it at the end."
