November 22, 1997
Texas A&M vs. Stephen F. Austin
Men's Basketball
Postgame Quotes
November 22, 1997
G. Rollie White Coliseum, College Station, Texas
A&M head coach Tony Barone:
"I thought that today we had some good spurts on defense. In the first half we jumped out to a 13 point lead and then we were down in the second half, but we got another spurt to gives us a 12 point lead. I don't think that we reacted well to the lead either time. I thought that our shot selection was questionable. Overall, I am absolutely thrilled with the way that the kids played. I have no criticism, except the way our shot selection was. We weren't cocky enough. I think that we cut our own throat with shot selection in the first, but I liked our enthusiasm in coming back.
"We are going to press all year. We had a pretty good crowd today and I was pleased with their enthusiasm. They were a factor. It's tougher to play home, than on the road. There is so much extra pressure from friends and family. But we have got to get used to it."
On UMKC (next opponent)
"They have eight new kids, mostly junior college transfers. They will play very physical and very aggressive."
Shanne Jones, junior forward:
"At half time, our coach said he didn't care what the score was, we were going to keep pressing. We were down, but he told us to just increase our intensity level. We had a drought before the half. But we didn't let it get to us. Coach said, `here's what we are going to do. Come out pressing and go on a run. Try to put them away early.' We needed to work on our press and stop fouling. In the first half they had too many free throws. We just came back and played good solid defense."
Larry Thompson, senior forward:
"SFA was picked No. 1 in their conference this season. We knew what we had to do to win and we did that. We just played like we were capable of playing. They came out in pretty good spurts, but didn't capitalize on them. We were able to jump on them in the second half with our press and do the things that we do well."