University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss vs. UCF Post-Game Quotes
2/8/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 8, 2006
Southern Miss Head Coach Larry Eustachy
On the play of his team: "Certain players on this team have stepped up. Travis Hall has stepped up recently, playing well in the past three out of four games we've had. Courtney Beasley has been sick, and he probably should not have played. But he played 38 minutes tonight, which was huge. (Craig) Craft played well too, because if he doesn't play as well as he did, we don't win the game. Overall, I've been pleased with the play of our freshmen. I don't think this win was handed to us; I think we earned it."
Senior forward Jason Forte
On how important his free throws were in the game: "I came here at 4:30 today just to shoot free throws because I knew how important this game was going to be. I know that I can shoot free throws, and I felt comfortable tonight. Since we had lost the past six straight, I felt like if making these free throws would give us a win, I know that I would knock them down."
On getting a win a day after his birthday: "It's great to get a win around your birthday. The beginning of the game seemed slow, but we kept fighting. This gets us closer to where we want to be going into the conference tournament. All of the practices that we've gone through have made us mentally tough to close out games like these. But it was good to get this win and give a `Happy Birthday' to myself."
Junior guard Travis Hall
On closing out this game: "Coach Eustachy has had us shoot a lot of free throws during the last few practices that we have had, which is going to pay off in the long run. Shooting free throws has never been a problem for me, but we did a good job of closing out the game as a team at the line tonight."
On if lessons learned from past games helped tonight: "We are a young team, as every game has been new to us. But what I like about this team is that no one gives up. We had a 1-6 C-USA record going into this game, and we haven't given up."
UCF Head Coach Kirk Speraw
On the difference between the two halves: "I thought that Southern Miss did a great job of staying with their offense, hitting a couple of jumpers and three point shots, which gave them confidence. We missed a lot of free throws, which contributed to their run as well."
On his team's 16 turnovers compared to Southern Miss' five: "They had five turnovers, to our 16, which is 11 possessions that were positive for them. In a grinded out game like this one, you can't do that."
