George Washington University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: GW 62, Rhode Island 58
1/22/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Head Coach Mike Lonergan
On the 18-point comeback and what it says about the team: Well, it says we didn't do that great of a job getting ready for coming out. They were punching us in the face, playing physical, they think we're soft, that's what they did to us last year, and they did it to us again at the beginning of this year, which shocked me, really. And then when it got to 18, I was like 'we can't wait too long,' so we did a good job getting back in the first half. I thought that was important, down 4 or 5 at the half. Then, I'm so thankful for our students, our Colonial Army, who came today because this was supposed to be a national TV game tonight, which is what we wanted and then it ended up being played in front of not a lot of alumni and adult fans because obviously the snow, but luckily students came. [Athletics Director Patrick] Nero and the Colonial Army did a great job providing refreshments and stuff to get them here early and even though it wasn't a huge crowd, it was very loud at the end. Our guys hung in there and finally went inside - they're tough, really tough, it was a tough battle.
On the defensive play in the second half: It was our energy level. Number one for them, [Jarvis] Garrett, I was so worried about him getting to the basket. You know, we were going under screens a little bit, we were supposed to guard aggressively and jump on our screens but we were just way off and they saw and took advantage of it and made some threes early on. But down in crunch time he didn't really hurt us. I thought we got some help defense, which we haven't gotten a lot this year. Tyler's guys came over and blocked shots and played defense like a team which is something that we have to do this year. I know we are not the most athletic team, but when we play as a unit on defense we are really good, and offensively we usually do, we get a lot of assists, but to their credit we only had four assists. They took us out of our offense, our lack of foot speed, our guard position, and made it hard to run plays.
On what it means to have Joe back: Joe is a kind of calming influence on us. Alex [Mitola] has some really good strengths, but he's not really creative, he's more of a shooter and different things. But Joe, that last eight minutes, did a really good job on [Jarvis Garett]. We did a much better job during the second part of the second half. When we buried down, and took away their strengths, in particular Yuta did a really good job from keeping four from getting any looks.
On what changed in the second half: Well we finally responded to their toughness... Sometimes it intimidates us, the officials, and our players got a little intimidated by them. Well, I wasn't going to yell - we were at home and we were down 18. So I think we finally responded, there was a loose ball, we weren't getting on the ground and they were, and we knew they were going to do that. But our guys finally responded. We just had to kinda remain calm, which isn't easy for me down 18, but I knew we had the fire power to get back in the game, and I'm just glad we did with that big run at the end.
On what it means to win a game when the team only shot 38 percent: I think it shows what I hope we would have this year, our experience. We are one of the most experienced teams in the country, we haven't really panicked too much in games like that, we did in St. Louis a little bit with some free throws and we had a guy go out an miss a one on one, sometimes, that's contagious. But Tyler and Yuta made theirs, Yuta's just rolled in there, it was a little scary. I think the free throws are huge for us. Last year we lost a lot of games because of free throws. This year we have lost two games because of free throws. But tonight our guys did a good job, we had the right guys at the free throw line and that really helped us. I thought we got stops and tried to save the ones we wanted, we switched defenses a bunch of times and I think that kept them off balance a little bit.
Junior Forward Tyler Cavanaugh
On the 18 point comeback: We just kept plugging away. They punched us in the mouth first, but that shows the maturity of our team to bounce back. We weren't really defending well at the beginning, but then we got on the defensive end. We had multiple guys contribute: Yutu got big rebounds in the second half and Kevin turned it around in the second half finishing with 9-8. He's a force and when we can get him going we are just a dominating team.
On being more aggressive after URI kept fouling: Yeah, for sure. They were being less aggressive and they didn't what to foul us and that took Hassan Martin out of the game a little bit. He's a great shot blocker, but I felt we just made the right decision down the stretch and that's about it.
On what it means to have Joe back: Huge, especially against this team. Joe brings our toughness as a team, he's the heart and soul of our team, so with him out we did what we had to do. Like he said, Alex and Paul stepped up and it gave them good opportunities, but now we are getting back it's crucial for this run through conference. The way he controls the tempo and battles inside-outside and defensively is key to our team.
Senior Guard Joe McDonald
On getting back on the court: This was the perfect chance for me, for our team. We knew Rhode Island was going to play hard, so first we had to get this win, we had to be tough, and we were tonight which is why we won.
On people stepping up while he was out: No doubt, I thought even though I was out for those couple games people could benefit from it like Alex and Paul just to get more minutes in. Both of them had big plays in this game. They may do different things other than myself but it still helps to contribute to our team. I think it was a good thing for them, for sure.
On getting help from the team when defending Jarvis Garrett: On defense, it has to be team defense for it to be successful. You can't expect one person to just keep handling it. So, when we play team defense I honestly think we can shut down any team, and I really think that showed today - especially when we were talking, communicating, and playing hard, playing for each other.
