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ATLANTIC 10 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP


March 10, 2017


Chris Mooney

Shawndre' Jones

Khwan Fore

T.J. Cline


Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

RICHMOND 70, George Washington 67

CHRIS MOONEY: Well, I thought it was a really, really hard-fought game. We played GW three times this year, and you know, they made some adjustments and played incredibly hard tonight.

I thought they played a great game. I thought we played a very good game. You know, and we were finally able to defend -- our numbers aren't good for the game, but we were finally able to defend, I thought like the last seven or eight minutes. Made some really big defensively plays. Obviously the one at the end being the most important.

So really pleased to win the game, and looking forward to the game tomorrow.

Looked like on the last play or inbound -- take me through how you got back up top and what happened.

KHWAN FORE: I know once they got it in, they wanted to get Bolden coming around for the screen. We had seen that before in previous games, so I was just on the alert for that, and I just went in to help once Watanabe got the ball, and I just took a chance and got the steal.

Q. You heard Coach mention about the seven to eight minutes at the end with your defense, specifically not being able to allow Cavanaugh to get off a shot at all. What does that say about your defensive intensity and mind-set in those last seven or eight minutes?
T.J. CLINE: I think it just shows our heart that we have. We know when it the comes down to the last few minutes down to the wire that, we need to man up and make defensive plays. You know, credit him. He played really, really well. He shot the three well. He was doing well down low. And we knew we couldn't let him continue doing that, so I thought we did a really good job of locking in on him and kind of making sure he didn't get any post touches, and if he did, there was kinds of people around him to crowd him.

Q. T.J., I know it's probably the third time I think you've scored in single digits this year, but you still win, and all three of those games you've won, does it show that you can win without scoring 15, 17, 20 points a game?
T.J. CLINE: Absolutely. We have very capable scorers on this team. Down the line, there's no one who is not a scorer or not a threat. Khwan is unbelievable. Shawndre', we know, our star; Bak; Nick; no one is afraid to score and no one is afraid to shoot the ball, and we have confidence in all of our players.

Even when I'm not going or they are doubling or I'm not getting shots off, there's no problem with that as long as we win the game, and everybody else kind of picks up the scoring load.

Q. Khwan, you made two very important baskets down the end. Take me through the mind-set on those two, one drive down the lane I think and another one, very critical.
KHWAN FORE: Oh, yeah, seeing that Steeves had ran out like, past the three-point line, and again, I was just being aggressive and just used my quickness and just beat him to the rim.

Q. Obviously round three with VCU, your thoughts on having to play them again?
SHAWNDRE' JONES: It was a good opportunity for us. We have to play them in order to get where we want to get and that's the A-10 championship. The last two games were hard-fought. We came up short and hopefully we can get this one.

CHRIS MOONEY: Can I ask a question first? Is John O'Connor not here? Thanks.

Q. T.J., I think he took one shot in the second half if I'm not mistaken, right, and you were still able to maintain the lead and hold it.
CHRIS MOONEY: You know, I really think the credit goes to T.J. I think he's the Player of the Year in the league and I don't think he took a bad shot in the game; and is being double-teamed and guarded by every single player, and he's still passing the ball, you know, immediately. He's trusting his instincts and he's making the passes, and to have eight assists in a game, it's pretty normal for him.

But for a 6-9 guy, to make those decisions so quickly and not be worried about his points or stats or anything like that, is really, really impressive, and he's just such a unique player. So he can impact the game in many, many ways.

I thought he played a good defensive game today. I thought he played a great offensive game. If we had shot the ball a little bit better, he would have had even more assists, but I thought he played a great game.

Q. 21 lead changes, what did it take for you to finally gain some separation?
CHRIS MOONEY: I don't really feel like we did, ever, to be honest. I thought, you know, they went zone and Nick Sherod hit two threes mand I felt like we were doing pretty well. They come down, I think Cavanaugh hit one of the threes, and you know, what felt like it could have been like a 10-0 run was about a 10-9 swing, is all.

So they played incredibly hard. I thought they were extremely motivated. They were certainly ready to play. Good game plan. And so I think it was really hard for us to pull away. I think finally in the end, you know, we had one more defensive stop in us, and we didn't play well defensively throughout the game but I thought the last seven minutes we did and that last play by Khwan is a really big time play.

Q. He said y'all had seen an alert somewhere, and they called time-out -- did they switch what they were doing to what you saw?
CHRIS MOONEY: Yeah, I thought they had -- Shawndre' actually guarded the man coming off the screen. We're in a difficult situation there because of the sides, is that much more notable when it's so close to the basket and the ball is coming in. We fouled twice. We had the two fouls to give but then they got the ball under the basket. I don't know whether that was the best strategy or not. And we were fortunate because we didn't want to switch to put Khwan or Shawndre' on one of the big guys. We were fortunate, we made them inbound the ball past the top of the key. That was the most important part of it, and then Khwan I think just, he's so quick and has such good instincts; to steal the ball like that was a really big, a really big play.

Q. Talk about his defensive ability a little bit. Everybody knows about his offensive capabilities and jumping and quickness and all that.
CHRIS MOONEY: He's a great defender. He's able to apply pressure without getting beat by his offensive player, and that's pretty rare. You know, we actually don't have a ton of that, and he provided a lot of it, and so since he does, he's that much more critical to our defense and was able to apply pressure, keep his body in front, and then come up with some big plays. I think he had seven rebounds, as well, you know, just played a terrific game.

Q. Your thoughts on VCU, since we have round three now.
CHRIS MOONEY: Yeah, more size. So much quickness, Lewis, and the guards are very quick and they are also good ball handlers, and they really -- you know, for us, there's no secret they are trying to pound the ball inside.

So we are going to have to do something to combat that. Hopefully our skillfulness and sense for the game and speed and all those things show up in the game, as well. But we need to figure out how to make it so that they don't have too, too many points on the paint.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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