Head coach Matt McCall
On winning while not shooting well.
"There's a lot of teams out there, and even team's I've been a part of, and they get completely consumed on offense – is the ball going in the basket. And we didn't do that tonight. I'm just really proud of our guys because that's human nature right there. And you have to fight human nature.

"If the ball's not going into the basket, can you still find a way to win? We did that tonight, and I'm just really proud of our guys for that. They dug in. We got stops. We got rebounds. We made free throws. And I can't say we were taking bad shots, because I thought we were getting really, really good ones. They just weren't going in, but we didn't let it affect us."

On the full team contributing tonight.
"Tre' had four steals. He ends up with 12 points and 10 rebounds. I thought he did a terrific job on the glass. Justin Tuoyo goes for 15 and seven. Dee Oldham, the ball finds him. Rebounding, it just finds him. In fact, in the last possession of the game, defensively Reggie Witherspoon said 'Let's put Dee in for rebounding purposes.' And I said, 'Alright, let's do it.'

"And what happened in the last possession of the game? Dee Oldham got a rebound. He just finds a way to rebound the ball. And he goes for seven points and nine rebounds. I told our team before the game, 'We need to get back to the point where we're outrebounding teams.' I think the last couple of games we weren't able to do that. And we did that tonight."

On the guards' performances tonight.
"I thought our guards did a terrific job breaking the press. I don't think we turned it over one time that I can remember versus the press. That's a credit to our guards and taking care of the basketball, especially with Greg Pryor. I thought he was great.

"We didn't panic tonight one time against the press. We handled it the right way. I would like to see us try to get more baskets on the backend, especially with how hard it was to score tonight. But we did a great job of breaking the press."

On what he told the team before the game.
"I told the guys in the locker room before the game – a game like this on the road, Southern Conference, huge game for them, huge game for us – the team that comes out with more energy and the game is more important to, is the team that's going to have success.

"The last couple of games on the road we went into the half down. I think this is the first Southern Conference game all season where we went into the half with a lead. I thought that was big, us just getting a great start in the game."

Justin Tuoyo, forward, junior
On Samford never giving up.
"We knew that coming in. It's always tough to win here. The way they play they don't give up. They are a hard-pressing team, real scrappy. We knew when we got the lead it was going to be a hard fought game the whole time."

On a solid defensive performance.
"We knew coming in, we preached the whole time that if shots don't fall, don't get down. We have to keep playing defense. We have to get rebounds, so we knew that coming in. Tonight was one of the nights where shots weren't falling in. We didn't put our head down. We all played defense and got shots when we needed to. That's what made us win."

On Samford playing tough in the second half.
"You expect that, but I have great people around me, great shooters around me, people who can make plays. So it's not that difficult when I have people like that around me."

Tre' McLean, forward, junior
On having 18 wins on the season.
"It's great. Congratulations to our team. We've been working hard. It started in the summer since Coach McCall got here."

On the first half being his best half of the season.
"Today I just wanted to come out on the road. We knew Samford was expecting a big crowd, and they were going to come out energetic. And both teams had a week off. I just wanted to come out with energy and play hard."

On the team not shooting well, but making up for it in other areas.
"Coach was saying all season, 'Don't let shots affect us.' He always says 'What's going to happen when you play a game and the ball doesn't go in the rim?' All season we've been shooting the ball from the three pretty well. Points have been coming pretty easily.

"We hadn't had a game where we really struggled from the field. In our three losses, we kind of struggled, but we weren't good defensively. Today the difference was we were more locked in defensively and more active."