Head coach Matt McCall
How tough was the team shooting from the three-point range tonight?
"In the first half especially outside of the turnovers, we had 10 turnovers in the first half, and we shot over 50 percent from the three-point line and over 50 percent from the field. So looking at the stat sheet and you only have an eight-point lead, something's wrong. We cleaned up the turnovers in the second half. I think we only had four.

"Greg Pryor had four of them for us in the first half, and he was pressing a little bit. He was beating himself up. I told him I said, 'Listen, sometimes you only focus on the bad things you do in the game. You had a pretty good half outside of the turnovers. Just stick with it, play lower to the ground, and you'll be fine.' And that's what he did. In the second half, he may have had one with five assists, 17 points and five turnovers.

"The biggest key in the game is rebounding, and we needed to out-rebound them. They've won seven games on the year. The games that they've won they've had a plus-six rebound margin in those games on average. Then the two games that they lost coming into our game I think they had a minus seven. So that was the biggest key.

"Then Torrance Rowe, a terrific player, came into the game averaging 17 points a game. We had to make sure we took him out of the game and tried to do the best job on him as we possibly could. He finished with four points." 

On rebounding.
"It was a collection of guys. They're doing it by committee, which is what you want. They've all done a great job. I'm going to really try to put my focus and emphasis on rebounding. That's something you can control.

"Sometimes you can't control the ball going into the basket, and when you put your focus on that 95 percent, when 95 percent of the time you play is with the ball out of your hands. I feel like Tre' McLean's doing a good job of that. It opened up his offense as well. He put his focus on making a conscious effort to rebound the ball, and it's really paid off for him and our team."

How important was it to come out and respond well after the win over Dayton?
"It was very important. As a coach, it was concerning. You go into the game, and you try to warn your team about that. We went to Dayton, we played harder. They had an emotional victory on the road at Vanderbilt and had a home game. Let's try to learn from that.

"When you have a veteran team, a group that lost to Tennessee Tech last year, I think again they had a 17 or 18-point lead, watching that film. Tennessee Tech came back to win. Our guys were fired up to play the game. There was a little extra motivation for those guys tonight because I think they really wanted to get this one."

On depth of team stepping up with Casey Jones being injured.
"I told Johnathan Burroughs-Cook before the game that I wanted him to get his speed into the game because he's so fast. I told Greg Pryor in the second half that I'm going to play him and Johnathan together a lot, and I was going to play Greg off the ball. I thought their pressure was wearing them down physically.

"Moving Johnathan on the ball and freeing Greg up a little bit. I think that's why Greg was able to get 17 points in the game, and that's something we'll look to do a little more. If you're going to go out there and guard Johnathan, he has unbelievable speed and physicality. He's able to get down the lane, and he had plenty of opportunities to have some great finishes."

Johnathan Burroughs-Cook, guard, junior
On how it feels to have a double-digit scoring performance.
"It feels great. I just try to stay focused at practice and attention to detail, and I know that any night can be anybody's night. I tried to play hard defensively and do what I had to do."
What was coach's message at halftime with all of the turnovers?

"We need to just try to take care of the ball. We knew that they would try and pressure us and deny us all over the floor. Coach McCall put me at the one to handle the pressure a little bit because Greg Pryor had a good scoring night, and he wanted to take some of the pressure off of him."

How well you and Greg Pryor play off of each other?
"It's just like in high school. It speaks for itself on the floor. I can't explain it."

Tre' McLean, forward, junior
How much did the loss to Tennessee Tech last year weigh on your mind?
"I think that's been on my mind this whole season, really. Even more so after today's win, because I knew that last year we played good for about 30 minutes and let it slip out of our hands. You don't always get a lot of second chances. We got a second chance this time, so I knew we had to handle business."

Have you felt any pressure to adjust your role since Casey Jones got injured?
"It was very unfortunate what happened to Casey, but we're a team. If one guy goes down, the next guy steps up. It's an opportunity for us all as a team to pick up for Casey and do what Casey did."
On game against Kennesaw State Friday.

"We're basically going in with the same mentality that we did tonight. Kennesaw State has been up the past two years that I've been here. They're going to be pretty hyped up to play us. We need to handle business."