Fresno State Athletics
Game Quotes
12/13/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Head Coach Rodney Terry
"We knew that we were going to play a quality opponent tonight with Cal Poly. They are a previous NCAA Tournament team with a lot of experience and have played a quality schedule this season. We knew that we were going to have to bring a really good defensive mind tonight, and I think that our team was able to do that. Anytime you can hold a team to a 29% field goal percentage shooting, you did your job for the night. Cal Poly has a great coach. They coached their team the same way I would have coached a team playing against us. They knew that we were down a ball handler or two and that we would be in and out of foul trouble tonight, so they extended their pressure up the floor. Our guys did a good job of finding open guys and Paul hit some great shots tonight, which was a big momentum push. Anytime he is shooting well it transfers over to the defensive end."
On the tough season start...
"We have been on the road so much this season. We are going out on the road again one more time before we break for the holidays, to play a tough team in Pacific. This is a very similar team to Cal Poly, a team that is not going to beat themselves and is going to play extremely hard. We are going to have to take care of the basketball when we play them. I think that we had about 13 turnovers tonight and we can't do that against Pacific. We are going to have to take care of the ball and continue to play as a team."
On missing Cezar...
"Our team has grown a lot without Cezar. Having Cezar in the game gives us another guy that is able to handle the ball and has been successful at this level. I know that he will be able to help our team when he does come back, but I think Marvelle has grown in Cezar's absence and Emmanuel has had a chance to play and handle the point guard duties this season. Paul also had to handle the basketball, so a number of guys have gained valuable experience in Cezar's absence. I think that this situation has made us better as a team, but when he does come back it will help our team. With his presence on the court it allows Marvelle and Paul more looks to score."
On the lack of scorers...
"When we were playing our best a year ago, we had four or five guys in double figures every night. We had three tonight, but anytime you can have four guys in double figures and you play great defense you give yourself a chance that night. I do think that there will be some other guys that will become great scores as the season progresses. We still have yet to get Julien Lewis on track, he's going to break out and play the way that we know he can play. He has a chance to be one of those guys that can carry the scoring load. Once we get an experienced ball handler in the game Marvelle and Paul will be able to score more points."
On the post play...
"I think that our post guys did a great job tonight. We knew coming into this game that our post guys were going to be really important and our post defense had to be better. I think that Braeden came in tonight and did that for us. Karachi was in there battling and Paul was working down low for us as well."
On Pacific next week...
"Pacific is going to take care of the basketball and play extremely hard. They are similar to Cal Poly, they are going to want to control the game, not run up and down the floor and we want to get out and run a little bit. We want the game to be a bit faster than what they're comfortable with. We will probably see some zone at Pacific, similar to what we saw tonight. We really have been seeing zone a lot this year and we have created some pretty good scoring opportunities against the zone this year. We just have to continue to work and try to execute the things that we have been working on and doing well. We have played well against zone, hopefully Pacific continues to run a zone defense when we go to there next Saturday. Hopefully we will have Cezar down there with us, I'm not really sure, but that will be another person they will have to worry about guarding."
On his slow start tonight...
"I have to tell myself to keep shooting the ball; I knew that it was going to fall eventually. After a couple shots go down it makes it easier for me to get into a rhythm and after that I just continue to shoot. This was a great win for us. We need this win and it was a great way to bounce back after a loss on the road. We have to take each game one at a time and now start to prepare for next Saturday."
