George Washington University Athletics
Postgame Comments: GW vs. Hampton
11/23/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 23, 2010
NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL--DICK'S SPORTING GOODS NIT SEASON TIP-OFF
November 23, 2010
Hampton 62 @ GW 51
Postgame Quotes
GW Coach Karl Hobbs
Talk about that 0-15 drought in the 2nd half.
"We missed three straight open shots, and that was the difference in the game. In that stretch, they got momentum, and we could never regain it. We're really struggling to shoot the ball well."
Did playing a tight game yesterday affect how you played?
"Part of it was knowing we didn't have Dan Guest or Jabari Edwards, so we had to adjust with that along with trying to bounce back from playing a tough late game last night against a team that was as athletic as Nevada. It was a similar game to some degree, but shooting only 28 percent and having your best two shooters go 2-17 made it a very hard game to win."
Late in the game when you were down by 10-12 points, did you consider bringing in your 3-point specialists?
"They were 2-12, so they had opportunities and the shots didn't go down. At that point, we needed defensive speed and try to turn them over. Both guys were having a tough night shooting. If they're numbers are different, the game is different."
GW Soph. F David Pellom
You had a team-high 11 rebounds. How do you evaluate your effort?
"I played very, very hard tonight, but there were a few rebounds that I let slip through my hands."
GW Soph. G Tim Johnson
What did you see happen that allowed Darrion Pellom and Kwame Morgan to run away with the scoring?
"At the defensive end, we were pretty aggressive. But on offense, we executed well, our shots were there, we just didn't hit them."
Hampton Coach Edward Joyner, Jr.
Your team seems extra-excited about this win.
"It's a non-conference win, and that's what it's all about. We went through a lot last year, and this team has blown up a lot. At this point last year, we were 0-5, and lost a lot of games where we had the lead in the two minutes. Today, we came and played a good second half, so of course we're very excited. It's a good win."
Your 15-0 run really changed the game. What did you see happening out there?
"The guys came together and made plays. I wish I could say I made some genius move, but I didn't. I commend them and give them the praise for that. We were actually very close at halftime, so I told them you're right where you want to be, so now put together a second half like you've normally done, and you'll come away with the victory. And that's what we did."
Darrion Pellum had a great second half. What changed for him?
"He had to adjust to the physical nature of the game. You have to play the way the refs call. The last two games have been very physical. He felt his second half yesterday wasn't good, so he wanted to have a better one today. He came out and made a couple of buckets. One thing he didn't do today was just bail out and shoot a bunch of 3s. He started getting to the baseline."
Did you deliberately set Pellum up for any particular match-up?
"Not really, we were just trying to develop some kind of rhythm. We came out as flat as I've seen us this year. We wanted to do things to just move, and make them move--make them play defense for 30-34 seconds. We gave up a couple of shot clock violations, but I wasn't upset by that."
Did GW seem tired to you, and allow you to run on them at the end?
"They did enough in the first half where we felt they should've been up 10. They weren't finishing. I told my guys you're not scoring, but they're not scoring either. Stay on top of them, pressure the ball more, get them out of character. But we had to stay in character. And we thought we saw them wearing down, so we wanted to do things to keep wearing them down."
