Recap |  Final Stats |  Notes

Cleveland State vs. Valparaiso
February 9, 2012 - Wolstein Center

CSU Head Coach Gary Waters
"We just didn't play very well. When you score 41 points and shoot 25 percent, it's hard to beat anyone. We missed nine lay-ups and if we make those, we're in the game. It's not like we don't practice that. Valparaiso beat us on bench points and we gave up 11 treys and that is not who we are."

"They only had 14 points inside so I thought we did a good job of defending near the basket. They were hot and it was one of those games. They just hit shots. They were open, so I have to give them that."

"When they hit three-pointers, it just cuts your spirit out. We talked about it at halftime and they came out and started the second half with two more threes and that was the ballgame."

"D'Aundray Brown being out limits our bench. Without him, we're down to eight and that is what we had to play with. The three that are coming off the bench are all freshmen, so you don't always know what you're going to get."

"Richie Edwards stepping out and hitting shots really hurt us. Ryan Broekhoff is going to hit shots. He's the best player in the league in my estimation. But Richie Edwards stepping outside forced our big guys like Aaron Pogue away from the basket and changed the game."

"When you lose, you lose a piece of yourself. Now we have to re-group and we play in two days. You don't have a chance to recuperate. We had three guys play over 30 minutes so I need to make sure they get enough rest. We also play at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday so I need to get them prepared to play. When you have veterans like we do, you have a better chance at bouncing back."

"We missed nine lay-ups in the first half. Pinpoint lay-ups. Nine! When you miss nine lay-ups, it's either a lack of focus or you're uptight and there was no reason to be up-tight."

"Valparaiso did a good job of running their offense and they ran it for a lengthy period of time. When they executed their offense, they ran about 25 seconds off the shot clock so we were running and chasing for 25 seconds. You can't have a breakdown, and we were breaking down and they were popping out and hitting three-pointers. Combine that with missing nine lay-ups, and you just can't have that."

"We only took 13 threes and we average more than that. That wasn't the issue. You can't miss nine lay-ups and expect to be in the game."

Senior Guard Jeremy Montgomery
"We have to come out with a fire. We became counter-punchers, and you can't do that in this league."

"You have nights like tonight where your offense isn't working for us. We should be able to rely on our defense. They got a lot of uncontested looks and made them tonight."

"It was very frustrating. We were telling each other to stay poised and stay confident, always reminding each other to keep attacking."