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Reporter: Can you talk about your shot first and then just, you know time is running out so it's kind of a
launch isn't it?
Yeah, I just tried to just make a play at the end offensively. Do the best I can to tie the game up.
Which I did.
It's obvious that on the last play defensively it was a tough shot and he made the shot. There was only so much I could do on that.
Reporter: Can you just kind of walk through the defense in those last seconds. Obviously,
there is no timeout and nothing is being set up
so just kind of what you saw?
I wanted and thought I had a good defensive possession there.
I thought I did the right thing instead of letting him drive, I let him settle for the shot towards the end
and he just made the shot and he capitalized on the shot.
Reporter: Can you talk a little bit about the emotions right now? You know it's tough.
Once again we started off lethargic, trying to chase back and get back into the game.
We gave, we fought, we fought. We just couldn't get enough stops and enough rebounds
down the stretch to close the game out. That hurt us down the stretch as well.
Reporter: Will you talk a little bit about having to deal with that as a group?
I mean you did a lot of things right, especially offensively in the last five, six possessions
but just couldn't kind of get over that hump.
Will you talk also about how that kind of carries over to the next game
or you don't want it to I guess?
Well we just have to capitalize on every possession. You know that last five minutes of the game
every possession counts so if we need to get a rebound or
a great defensive stop then that's what we
need to do going into the next game.
We can't allow teams to get second chance points
or things like this will happen. It will put us in a hole and it will be
tough for us, you know, to win the game.
Reporter: You guys were very effective in those last possessions offensively
but obviously couldn't get
stops defensively. Does that kind of wash away all the good things done offensively?
Yeah it does.
You know matter what we do offensively this game is about stops. Who can get the most stops down the stretch of the game.
And you can see Akron made the last shot and they got a stop before we did, so
that was the two of the game.
Reporter: What allowed you to get back into the game?
The rebounding numbers really changed. Was that part of it?
Yeah I thought, liked I said, rebounding
is a weakness of ours. We have to continue to get better at crashing and
rebounding. If we can do that then I think we can be good down the stretch
for the remaining eight or nine games, whatever or however many games we got left.
If we can rebound the ball and continue to get stops down the stretch of the game than we will be okay.
Coach Orr: To God be the Glory. And honor and praise.
I thank Him for his strength and courage that he gives me
and that he promised to never leave me or forsake me. So I give Him all praise and honor.
Hey
You know I, I,
I give our guys credit.
We,
we kept fighting and
we gave ourselves a chance to win.
A tie game. A big shot by Jehvon. A three-pointer to tie it up.
Nine, ten seconds to go and it came down to a
big shot by Diggs. And that is something that
he's capable of doing. That's something I have seen him do before.
But, you know, looking through the whole game,
you know,
our fight is what gave us a chance. There was certain areas of the game
that we needed to control.
The defensive backboard I thought was a big key.
I thought we did a good job against Demetrious Treadwell.
You know he hit a couple of big baskets.
Out of bounds play basket and he hit a
tap in, but overall I thought we did a good job against Treadwell.
But we hurt ourselves on
second-chance points. And we hurt ourselves at the free throw line.
You know, we shot more free throws then they did.
But when you are playing at home and you are playing a first-place team in the league
you can't hurt yourself. And then turnovers.
We hurt ourselves, especially in the first half.
We answered runs, we fought back. We went down
14
in the second half. We will down maybe
10 in the first half, 25-15. We kept fighting back. We were down 10 in the second half
late. And with nine minutes to go we went down 10 and we fought back.
So we answered runs.
You know our guys, I just
they can do great things.
We can do great things. Our guys are capable, they just,
we get off to these slow starts and we have to
fight back and we do.
But we just got to keep grinding. Keep playing.
But I don't, our guys fought. They fought to the end. Akron had the ball and hit a big shot.
Reporter: You mentioned, you know, keep grinding, keep playing on, how tough is it though to get the mindset, you know,
to keep on and to keep going after a loss like this?
Help me out, when you ask,
what did you ask me? What do you mean?
How tough? It's bad. I mean
when you are playing. First of all, I
would rather have a chance to win then not have a chance at all.
And anytime you are in a competitive situation both teams want to win.
So we are a few plays away
from being, or having a few more wins. We got 10 wins, we could maybe have 15.
Today was a tough game, but we played and we gave ourselves a chance.
You're disappointed but hey, you should be anxious to play the next game.
You know. That's sports.
I hope they put your part, your question on the mic, but they probably want.
But I hope they do. I hope they put your question on the mic.
This is baskets. This is basketball. This is sports.
You got to keep playing. You thank God for another game.
You don't run and hide. You thank God for another game.
So you ask me, these, these questions, these,
like the doom, doom and gloom questions.
Hey, I am glad we had a chance to win. I wanted to win, but I would rather be like this
than not have a chance at all. That shows what we can do.
So let's go to the next game. Let's have another practice. Let's watch film, get better
and let's play the next game. That's how it works.
That's how it works. Reporter: Will you talk a little bit about the
offensive efficiency in those last possessions and especially
against Akron, who is such a tough ... Well we got to the free throw line. Right.
We got fouled. We tried to play inside-out.
Players make plays. Players make plays.
You know, Jehvon banked in a three to tie the game.
We got the ball into Richaun, I think he got four free throws he made.
Spencer drove it and got to
the free throw line. Made 1 out of 2.
You know, we got players that can make plays.
As long as they play with courage, as long as they play with courage
that's all you can ask. But we got to play with that
courage from the very beginning.
You know, you coach, you coach
18 to 23 year old's
and you are trying to push all the buttons,
all the buttons, all the buttons and you
see at the end, you know, if we do the things
in the body of the game, maybe, maybe, we are not fighting back to tie the game
63-63 at the end. You know, we
defensive rebound, we make our free throws, who knows,
maybe, maybe we're up, you know.
But we can't hurt ourselves. Especially against good teams.
You know, you just can't. So, hey our guys fought and
we had a chance to win. Reporter: Coach, this is one of the bigger attendances for a game for you guys
do you think that had an effect on you guys coming back and just continued fighting even more to win the game?
You know what, fans, fans is a beautiful thing.
To see people in the stands and
have them cheering for you. They can definitely energize you.
And hey I would like to thank them for coming out.
I think we got a fun team to watch. I think we,
we got a talented team to watch. I mean, we are a team that
has played some good basketball and
has potential to get better. We haven't, you know, played our best game
and I'm glad. It's exciting
for our guys to see them out there. It's exciting. We want to win every game and it was a great game to win. I know the crowd would have been excited.
Our guys would have been fired up, but
hey, we were this close. We came up short.
You know, we got to, we got to
keep the adrenaline going into the next game.
Get a chance to do, get a chance to do it, you know, and get a win the next game.
So, we got to keep it moving.
This season and this league, it's a grind
and it's a marathon. Half the teams win, half the teams lose
every, every day of the game. So you just got to play.
I've been around basketball a long time, you just got to keep playing.
Got to keep playing. So having the fans here was great. That was great.
Reporter: Coach,on the play after Jehvon ties the game, Coach Dambrot didn't take a timeout, they got the ball down the floor,
what did you see during that? Of course Diggs was
going to take the shot. That was a no brainer.
Didn't he score on the last two baskets? I think he scored the last two baskets. He wasn't passing the ball.
You know, he was going to take the shot.
He,he's a gamer, you know. And he had just made a shot
and really at the end of the day,
the only thing he could do, if he don't turn it over,
he wanted to get a shot and if you miss it you go into overtime.
So you can't lose it, unless he turns it over, or you know we get the ball back.
But he was either going to win the game or send it to overtime.
So, he is one of them kind of guys, he wants to be in that position.
And I think today Jehvon, when he hit his three, he
wasn't going to pass that ball. The play was for him to make a play
but it got to a point where I had seen it in his eyes, he said I'm shooting the three.
I'm either going to tie it up or whatever.
You know, he hit a big time shot. When you play with courage, I think,
I think more than likely, if you work with that courageous things will happen.
I seen him in the gym earlier today
after we had shoot around. He in the gym, he was in the gym shooting.
In the practice gym shooting. Jehvon Clarke.
You know, preparing himself, you know you prepare for moments like that.
But Diggs wasn't passing. He was going to shoot it.
Reporter: Coach, what went into your decision to start JD over Spencer?
Discipline. Discipline.
Discipline. I disciplined Spencer. Team thing. That was it.
Reporter: I know it's early and the game just ended, is there an update on Craig. Obviously he got to play.
It was good. It was good to have him out there.
Usually the next day you can tell with Craig. You can find out the next day how he feels.
You know really,
really he had a couple of individual workouts
and he had one practice. But you know he moved good
and his conditioning is not great, but
he gave us some minutes.
He's a vet, that's important.
So, I'm glad. I'm glad.
Craig, Craig, he's a,
he's a good guy to have on the bench and on the court.
So hopefully he can stay healthy and
be here for us for the rest of the year.
Reporter: I understand with Parker, it was just a disciplinary thing?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's done. He started the second half.
More of a team thing.