Dec. 13, 2008

Recap | Box Score

Post-Game Quotes
Loyola vs. UMKC
December 13, 2008

Loyola Head Coach Jim Whitesell

Opening statement
"In the first half, we had two possessions in a row with three offensive rebounds and made squat. First of all, we needed to take a good shot and second of all, get stronger and finish it. I thought the guys did a really good job defensively of grinding that thing out. This was kind of a match-up game because with Hamilton and Brumagin, they're dynamite offensively. They're a team that really shoots the ball well and they spread the floor. I thought Aric Van Weelden and J.R. Blount did a good job on those guys. I thought we really set our defense well, but offensively we couldn't get more baskets and that really was problematic."

On UMKC
"UMKC is a little like us, they've played a very, very good schedule. They've played Kansas, Florida, a very good Bradley team, they beat Florida Gulf Coast on the road, and they played Richmond. I've watched a ton of tape on these guys and I'm very impressed with their group. We knew this would be a hard game, I just thought it would be a higher scoring game. I thought it'd be a close game. I'm happy anytime we can get the W. I'm sure a lot of fans are thinking it wasn't a very high scoring game, but you have to win games like that if you're going to have a good season. "

On Aric Van Weelden's play in his first start of the year
"I thought Aric did a nice job for us. Defensively, he gives us length in the perimeter, gets in on plays and offensively, usually he'll move the ball. I was happy with his play. I also thought Courtney Stanley gave us some energy defensively."

On Darrin Williams
"I couple times I said we need you to come up and get the big rebound and don't worry about blocking so many shots. He was trying to block every shot in the first half, and Johnson was getting the back-side board. He was leading them at halftime and every shot he was taking was a two-footer because we were leaving the lane trying to block it. That's not going to get it done in college. I thought Darrin made a big basket at the end there, he split one of two from the line. Before Leon got hurt, we were running both of those guys together a lot in practice so we were happy with how well they played together."

Loyola senior guard J.R. Blount
On the offensive struggles in the first half
"We were executing and getting good shots, but we missed a lot of lay-ups and easy jumpers. We were emphasizing defense and we were able to stop them so we weren't really worried about our offense. We knew that if we could stop them, that we were going to get baskets. Boomer and Leon had some offensive tip-ins. We also got to the foul line in the second half so that helped us out too."

Loyola senior forward Leon Young
On his first game back
"Coach Whitesell told me to be ready at any point, but I didn't think I was going to play that many minutes. It felt really good to be out there. It was tough sitting on the sidelines and watching everyone play and wishing I was out there, so it feels good to be back out there."