Nov. 16, 2007

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Post-Game Quotes
Loyola vs. Western Michigan
November 16, 2007

Loyola head coach Jim Whitesell
Opening statement

"It was a heck of a game at the end, a highlight finish I guess you'd call it. I've got to give Western Michigan a lot of credit. They are a very good basketball team and one that executes very well. Our guys really fought. I guess we got ourselves in a hole in the beginning of the second half because we didn't execute very well. We had a couple of good opportunities, then we kind of got stagnant and they took it to us. Then we were really fighting to get back in it. It's possession game right down to the end, so we had our chances even to the last shot, and that would have been a heck of an unbelievable shot. We've got to shorten up the areas where we don't play as well. I think that's what every coach wants. You want your good runs to be longer and your bad play to shorten up. We were definitely guilty of that. We competed and fought in the second half, but we don't get any consolation prizes for that."

On Loyola's shooting against Western Michigan

"We just need more altogether. We need more execution. One thing we've got to do is execute our stuff better. We've got to make some shots. I think Western Michigan did a nice job of defending some things. We've got to get some second and third shots, that should be a strength of ours."

On Western Michigan
"They were down six with a minute and a half to go with the ball at Oregon. They played a really good Pacific team and they beat Pepperdine. Steve Hawkins is a really good coach and it's a really good program. This is a very good series for us to play, a very tough series. Western is a team that's going to be one of the very best teams in the MAC each and every year and they have been since Steve has been there."

On Loyola's comeback

"It takes a lot of effort to get back in there, and then they also got a couple key offensive rebounds right at the end and then the momentum had changed. In the last five possessions they had like three rebounds and long runs. That's a big part of it there. There's no doubt about it we've got to work on our rebounds and that is an area that we've got to get better at in a hurry."

Loyola junior guard J.R. Blount
On the final minute of the game

"It came down to the last second but what it really comes down to is the execution of the entire game. I know personally I let my teammates down by missing three free throws in a stretch there. I had a shot at the end, a shot that I thought I could make, that I usually make, but it didn't go in. It's just the way the game goes sometimes, but we're not going to get down on ourselves. We've got to come back next Saturday and play Purdue so we're going to learn from our mistakes, practice tomorrow and get better."