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ATLANTIC 10 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 11, 2011

Damian Saunders

ATLANTIC CITY, NEW JERSEY

Saint Joseph's Â– 93
Duquesne - 90

MODERATOR: We're joined by Ron Everhart, head coach of Duquesne University, and student-athletes Bill Clark and Damian Saunders. We're going to ask Coach Everhart to make an opening statement, then we'll take questions for the student-athletes and then dismiss them at that point.
Coach?
COACH EVERHART: I feel bad for our seniors. It's always tough to be on the losing end of anything, especially in a tournament setting where you have to go home. By the same token, you have to take your hat off Saint Joe's. They played great today, they made tough shots, they executed well, and the offensive rebounded very, very well. So at the end of the day, we maybe got beat by a better team today.
MODERATOR: Questions for Bill or Damian?

Q. This is for either of you guys. Can you talk a little bit about the pace of the game? It was a little quicker at times. It seemed to be more what you enjoyed and what was given you guys some success earlier in the season.
DAMIAN SAUNDERS: You know, the pace of the game was real good. Not starting off that first, you know, it was a really slowed up-tempo game, but we broke it open, getting a couple fast-break points and being able to get out and run. And, you know, they just started slowing the ball up, and I think that messed with us a little bit. Being the team that we are, we like to run a lot and, you know, get up in people, and we really didn't execute that tonight on the defensive end.

Q. What do you think allowed Carl Jones to get so hot in the second half? He only had 7 in the first half and then he just kind of let loose and it seemed like he was making a lot of shots? Coach Everhart and the players, if you have something to say.
COACH EVERHART: I mean, he had a couple up on top of the circle there where we had some switches where we didn't get to him quick enough, and he just kind of stepped back and he made some deep shots. And he was a confident shooter, and he made them, and those were -- especially those two in a row were shots that were tough for us because those kind of gave them that 10-point lead there that I thought was the difference in the game.
MODERATOR: As a reminder, questions only for the student-athletes right now.
Are there any questions for Bill or Damian? Okay. Thanks, guys.
Any questions for Coach Everhart?

Q. What was the idea on that final play of overtime that last possession?
COACH EVERHART: We were trying to get it to Bill coming off of a curl reverse screen. We knew they were going to switch everything, and we tried to set a ball, a high ball screen for T.J. to be able to drive it and get it to him. He just didn't get it back to the left-hand side of the floor.
We had Eric curl in tight off of Bill's chest and Bill was going to step back to the corner, hoping they would switch, which we thought that they would, and we wanted to get the ball to Bill in the opposite corner from our bench for an open 3.

Q. Ron, when you talk to your team further, you talk to other people about this team, you watched them play defense today, and they took them down to the shot clock to the end a lot of times, and those guys made shots. What do you talk about with this team, especially leaving now? I know you take a lot of pride in defense, and I think this team, in your eyes, probably played some tough defense today and they made some tough shots.
COACH EVERHART: Yeah, I mean, we played pretty well in a lot of areas.
The two things that we could have obviously done better were defend the interior and rebound their misses. That being said, they did. They made some tough shots. Galloway made one that was very difficult going down to the end of the shot clock. Jones made several, especially runners.
But I thought the real difference was Roberts and Hilliard. I just thought that those guys -- it seemed like every time we had a good stop or we made a miss, even B.J.'s fifth foul where we had our hand on the ball in the rebound and Roberts just kind of wrestled it away from us and got fouled. That was something that we just have to do better.
And you gotta just take your hats off to Saint Joe's because those kids played with a passion today. They made tough shots. They did some things that they had to do to win. Even Galloway finding the kid for the dunk at the end of regulation I thought was pretty good.
I haven't seen it on film so I don't know who was cheating off of him or why we would have done that because we had him stop and had him pivot in there, but, you know, he made a great play. And, you know, when kids make great plays and they continue to make them and they make tough shots like they did and I thought we did for a stretch, you know, it's a tough one.
I did think, though, that the difference in the game was when we got lackadaisical on offense. We missed a couple of easy ones. I remember Mike's layup at the rim, and a couple rolled off for us. They kind of jumped out on an 8- to 10-point runner or got a lead on us there, and then we had to fight and scratch and claw to come back and still put ourselves in a position on win.
Obviously could have done a better job at the free throw line, but I don't think we played poorly in any phase of the game today other than, you know, maybe not rebounding as well as we could have. When we did, we were able to get out on the break.
We had several that we -- one in particular that we threw back to two guys running, and B.J. and Damian were running together and neither one of them caught it and it went out of bounds. We had some stuff like that. Especially early in the game. We had some turnovers where we didn't take care of the ball, gave it right back to them, and those things add up. And that was the difference in, you know, us staying or us going home.
MODERATOR: Final question for Coach Everhart.

Q. When you guys were able to force the turnovers when you were in the press and causing them to give the ball up at the half court, it seemed that that really allowed you to go faster and play more like you had earlier in the season. How would you compare those portions of the game to what you were doing earlier in the season that was giving you guys so much success?
COACH EVERHART: It was the same. It was a little bit of a feast or famine deal for us today because in that the same press when they were able to split the traps and get it out of there, they had some open looks. When they were not and we covered it well, obviously we created turnovers and got the pace going like we wanted it to.
And, you know, again, their kids didn't wear down. They made shots at the end and just -- I thought we played this game with the type of tempo that we wanted with the exception of maybe the eight-minute stretch there in the first part of the second half.
MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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