Jan. 3, 2009
Recap | Box Score
Post-Game Quotes
Loyola vs. Milwaukee
January 3, 2009
Loyola Head Coach Jim Whitesell
Opening statement
"Milwaukee obviously is playing very well. I give them a lot of credit. They beat us to the punch all night. Whether it was 10-4 after the first media timeout or 8-0 in the second half when we started, you can only scream and yell and get after them so long. After it, you have to step up and respond. I thought we had a good section there in the second half to get within eight, but this team obviously handled that and they made some timely threes to change the momentum. Our inability to move the basketball was real evident and we had a lot of one-on-one play in the first half. I thought that dug us a hole along with our poor defense. Our rebounding was atrocious in the first half. I thought for a while, we put some young guys in and they gave us a good bounce, but we couldn't gain the momentum and Milwaukee always made the big shots when they needed to."
On Milwaukee's Three-Point Shooting
"They're a very good shooting team and that's one of the things we told our guys. We're not going to try to match them for the three. We can't do that. They made a couple when they had the shot clock winding down which hurts you mentally. But, you have to stick with it and make some other big plays happen. As you can tell, I'm really not happy with the way we played defense. Give them (Milwaukee) a lot of credit though. That's a very good basketball team."
Loyola senior guard J.R. Blount
On today's game
"Milwaukee shot the ball well. It really comes down to our defense though. Overall, we weren't out there challenging the shots as much as we should have been. They were able to make shots uncontested. A couple guys got hot, Avery Smith and Tone Boyle. They shot the ball well, but it's easy to shoot the ball well when the defense is kind of lackluster, so that's something we need to work on and re-group with. We've got Green Bay on Monday so there's really no time to sulk on this loss. It's Horizon League play so we really have to come out and get a victory on Monday."
On the team coming out flat at the start of the game
"We picked up the intensity in spurts. That's something we can't do. We need 40 minutes strong, especially in a Horizon League game. All the games are going to come down to the wire. We got down 18-19 points and cut it to eight in probably about five minutes. It's just about intensity. We came out flat, we weren't rebounding and when we get out-rebounded, it usually equals losses and that's what happened tonight. We really just have to come back and focus on the little things that we did wrong today and try to get a victory on Monday."
Loyola senior forward Leon Young
On the increased intensity of League play
"I could definitely tell, from my first game back, the difference in intensity that comes with the Horizon League. They (Milwaukee) came for business. The problem was, we were closed for business for a little bit. We kind of just let them do what they wanted to without really pushing them back and then, as you saw in the second half, we got it, but we need 40 minutes of it, especially if the other team is doing 40 minutes of it. You can't just decide, especially in this league, halfway through, that it's time to play. They're hot right now, so we should have known to be ready and play that intense. We just have to learn from this and we have another game coming up so use this to our advantage."
On his rebounding
"I wish I had done it in the first half. I came out flat as well in the first half. I was trying to get it together. The second half it started clicking, but I put that on my shoulders as well. Yeah the second half was good, but I have to be there the whole game."
