Jan. 29, 2007

Recap | Box Score

Post-Game Quotes
Loyola vs. Youngstown State
Jan. 29, 2007

Loyola Head coach Jim Whitesell

Opening Statement
"Obviously, I'm a little more relieved after Saturday's game. One thing that helped us is shooting the ball well but our guys also played with a lot of energy. We challenged them yesterday; you need to take a step one way or the other for where you want your season to go. The thing we really understood after Saturday's game is that even after you play really hard and have an emotional game, the next game is really going to be tough again, too. Hopefully, we found that out. We have a big game on Thursday but this is a big win. We got a really good start and I liked our guys' energy. We moved the ball well in the first half. Defensively, I think the guys did a nice job of helping, rotating, bumping and changing things up. We had a lot of good efforts from a lot of different people. I though Blake (Schilb) and Majak (Kou) really set the tone. It was nice to see (Brandon) Woods play well. We weren't upset with Andy (Polka) but we just wanted to see if we could stimulate a little bit of a change out there and get things going a little bit."

On Majak Kou and Blake Schilb
"They were shooting the ball well. Sometimes you just have to will yourself to get going. You can run all the plays and talk all you want but you have to step up and be aggressive. Both of those guys did a nice job with that. On the defensive end, I thought they both worked very hard. We have been up and down defensively but I thought we played a pretty solid game tonight."

On executing offense
"We talked a lot about screening then looking for the ball and get it moving. We always tell our guys that we're a much better team when we move the ball than when we just stand around. If you look at the last two games, even in big possessions against Butler, we didn't have a lot of movement. Tonight, we had a couple of air balls early but then we made a couple, which was good to see. It helped us open things up and get some more breathing room."

On Youngstown State guards Quin Humphrey and Keston Roberts
"Humphrey and Roberts are two guys that we have to pinpoint and try to just help on defense. Humphrey has been a nightmare for me personally since I've been here. Roberts had an unbelievable game against us down there with 30 points so we had to go out and really help on those guys. They're such good one-on-one players. Even when we were up big with two and a half minutes left, I was like `These guys can bury three three-pointers in 10 seconds' and they did start making threes toward the end."

On the first half performance
"The first half was really one of our better ones this season. Tonight, along with the Northern Iowa game, I thought we played really well in the first half. We had good energy and toughness at both ends of the floor. We've had games where we played really well offensively but lock up defensively or vice versa."

Loyola guard Blake Schilb

On effective early offense
"Both teams came out of the gate fast. We wanted to emphasize defense and set the tempo. I was waiting for that first media timeout. I was exhausted. When we got to that timeout, everything slowed down and we got into the rhythm of the game."

On learning from past two home games
"Whenever you lose, you always try to go back and learn from it by watching tape and seeing what you did wrong or what you could do better. We're trying to get this thing back on the right track because we know we're running out of time. As a senior, you really have this sense of urgency when you only have eight or nine games left."

On avenging loss at Youngstown State earlier this season
"I was a little mad after that loss. It was a month ago today when my finger got dislocated over there so it's starting to feel a little better. I just wanted to win. It didn't matter if I had a good game or not. I knew that I wanted to come out and be aggressive and my teammates did a good job of getting me the ball."

On aggressive offensive play
"Majak had a good game over there at Youngstown State the last time we played so we knew he could have a good game again. We knew if we got him the ball, he could score."

On impressive first half
"It's been a while since we've had a half like that. But even after a half like that, you still have to talk over what you need to do to build on that. You don't want to come out and be lackadaisical because a team like Youngstown State can get hot really fast."

Loyola guard Majak Kou

On the win
"This win was really important for us. We're trying to lock up the second or third spot in the league so we needed this win to get things going for the rest of the season and try to make a last run in the conference standings."

On his aggressive offensive play
"I was just doing what Coach Whitesell told me to do. I just kept cutting and moving without the ball and working to get good shots."

Loyola forward Brandon Woods

On the win
"This win was important because we had dropped two conference games at home so we knew we couldn't lose three in a row. That would have been devastating to the team so cutting this losing streak was good for us to try to turn this season around."