Dec. 30, 2012

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Memphis (9-3) 78, Loyola, Md. (9-5) 64
Memphis, Tenn. (FedExForum)

Memphis Head Coach Josh Pastner

That's a good win. That's a good team that we played. That's an NCAA tournament team. Extremely well-coached and they played hard, that team plays hard. That's a good win for us, there's no doubt that's a good win for us. They're improved from last year and they have a majority of their team back, and that's a really strong win for us.

We won the game because we held them to under 40 percent from the field and obviously under 30 percent from the three, which ended up being 16 percent. And we had 18 assists on 22 made field goals, we made free-throws and the reason we ended the first half with a four point lead was because we made three-point shots, I've always said that's the equalizer and we made three of those in the first half to allow us to have a four point lead.

They kicked our butt on the glass, we were going small, so you've got to give them credit. I jumped our guys at halftime and said hey man, this isn't a strategy thing. If there was a certain play that was killing us or a certain action that I could switch and do something different defensively, but this was just rebounding, this is just a mentality. I know we went small at times, but you've just got to find a way to come up with it. You've got to stick your nose in there and come up with 50-50 balls, you've got to come up with rebounds. I told Joe Jackson, it's ridiculous, you've got one rebound. I said for us to win this came, when we come back to the half, you've got to have four and five defensive rebounds, and to his credit, he ended up with four rebounds and some tough, hard-nosed 50-50 balls as did some of our other guys. Second half, the reason we were able to pull away was because we came up with 50-50 balls and stuck our nose in there for some tough rebounds.

Antonio Barton, they told me he might be done for the year and as I was going into halftime that he was out, then he could come back in and play, so that was a wide range of emotion. From broken this to broken that, and it was a bruised shin. So that was good.

Loyola, Md. Head Coach Jimmy Patsos

Thoughts on game
It was a great place to play, a great experience for our kids seeing the city and playing in a pro arena. I've known Josh (Pastner) for a long time. He's done a really good job here. He's got those kids playing really hard. We caught a break because (Tarik)Black didn't play. Black's a really good inside player. It's a good game. We're just trying to get better. We lost in our last game because we didn't play well, but tonight we played well. But they're (Memphis) good. They're going to be favored again to win their league.

Back and forth most of the game
We're in the entertainment business. We give them a good show. Josh without (Tarik) Black, (did well). He's got some guys coming around. They're a nice team. Shaq Goodwin is going to be really, really good. They've got nice kids. We went to the NCAA tournament last year, so we're trying to get our stuff straightened out. We lost a couple of guys, and they lost a couple of guys. It was a great game. I'm very grateful to play here, and I'm glad Josh invited us down to play. It was a good experience.

On play of Dylon Cormier
That's the best he's played in a while. Erik Etherly with 15. Robert Olson was a little off. Those are our big three. They hung in there. We don't have that fourth or fifth player like they (Memphis) do.

I knew Joe Jackson was going to play well. Shaq just did a little more than I thought he was going to do. And then Antonio Barton, I hope he's okay. We know him from Baltimore. With (Tarik) Black, I think they're going to be the favorite to win their league.