COUGARS

FROM STANFORD -- Emptying out the notebook following WsU's 78-67 loss at Stanford on Wednesday. Read on for quotes.

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KEN BONE

 

(On what happened in the last five minutes) "In its simplest form, they made shots and we didn’t. Along with that though, I thought our energy was a little bit deflated when they did start making some shots. All of a sudden they got up eight, 10, 12 and I thought that hurt us emotionally a little bit. Like I told the guys, I’ll have to see the video to confirm that, but I just thought we kind of dropped our heads a little bit and I don’t want to say showed frustration, but just didn’t maybe play as hard as we have been playing."

(What changed?) "They went zone and we scored right away against it so they kind of went zone, went man, went zone, went man but again we executed well a number of times during the game and converted and during that stretch, they just hit shot after shot after shot.

"That might be my fault like I told the guys. Maybe I didn’t sub enough early in the game to keep fresh bodies out there so I need to look at what decisions I made during the course of the game too."

(Why did Will DiIorio start?) "Matchup defensively. They’re just so big, they’re so tall and we didn’t want to struggle right from the beginning because of the matchup so we thought, well, let’s settle that by just going with a little more length, a little better rebounder. But speaking of, I really liked the way Royce Woolridge responded coming off the bench, I thought he was under control, drove it well. I just thought he played a good game."

(On the defense) "First 30 minutes of the game I thought we defended well. But I thought there was a 5-minute stretch -- the last two minutes we were desperate and fouling and whatnot -- but from about the 7-minute mark to the 2-minute mark, they were extremely efficient and we just couldn’t get shots when we needed to."

(On Stanford's shooting) "Pretty impressive. Aaron Bright had a great game. He comes into the game not shooting the ball well but he proved tonight he’s a very good shooter. Same with (Chasson) Randle."

"It’s not like we lost to a weak team. They’ve got a lot of talent. There’s a reason why they won the NIT and they’re going to get better and better."

BROCK MOTUM

"We just couldn’t get stops. We were scoring and they were scoring but when we stopped hitting a couple shots they hit them, and that sort of gave them a buffer. And then next thing you knew, there wasn’t much time left and we started to foul and they hit a bunch of free throws. They closed out the game well and we couldn’t close it out with stops when we needed them."

(Did you lack energy down the stretch?) "I wouldn’t say lack of energy. I would just say they hit some contested shots, tough shots. All the guys. At the end I was telling the guys and we were looking around, I didn’t even know who to foul because they all hit shots all game. It was tough but we need to figure out how to close out games defensively because offensive rhythm comes and we’ll always be able to score the ball."

"It’s tough when we’re missing shots and they’re making shots and the lead’s getting bigger with a small amount of time. I wouldn’t say the word deflate, but it puts a bit more pressure on us and it’s hard to execute knowing time’s winding down, their lead’s getting bigger. … if we get stops it doesn’t matter."

MIKE LADD

"Tonight was different. I feel like when the game is close in situations, our best scorer, Brock, we got him going. Our offense was pretty good but it was just the defensive end that was killing us, getting stops in clutch situations. We need to get stops there. This game was different because we had to foul and guys got their buckets at the free throw line."

"Some situations we defended OK, had contest and they just made shots. They’re good shooters. They made a lot of shots this game. it’s something we have to work on on defense."

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