Darin Lee Quotations

Lucas worked so hard. We had him doing so much. He just tired a little bit. It's not his fault. He was working so hard.

Murphysboro presents a whole different challenge. It's going to be a very, very tough sectional.

Murphy presents a whole different challenge. It is going to be a tough sectional.

Obviously, I would like us to play better offensively. Our defense was good all five games. We'd like to score more points and be more fluid, but I think that's something that can come as the season goes on.

Basically people having putting two and three people on Lucas. So someone has to step up and start knocking down some shots for us. Once we do that, then things really open up.

He got us off to a great start. He got a lot of points early. We know he gets a little fatigued, but we need him to score a lot of points for us for our offense to hum.

He's been pretty dominant here in the last couple weeks, and we're definitely going to need to have that from him.

When they're not going to guard you ... you have to knock them down. He's out there to shoot set shots, and he can make them. That was the key to start the second half, no doubt about it.

This was our best performance, no doubt. We got after it defensively, I didn't even know we could do that. We put the heat on early in the game and that really bothered them.

I thought it was a pretty good shot. We had one more timeout, but I wasn't sure if we could get a better shot than with Lucas in a scramble going to the basket.

That would have to be the best one he's played and it didn't surprise me. We thought we could hurt them inside and he was able to do that.

Most of his points have come within eight feet of the basket. He just needs to knock some more jumpers down consistently. He hasn't had to for us, but that's something that at the next level is going to help him a lot.

We haven't shot it as well as we'd like. We can be pretty dangerous when we shoot it well and not turn it over. We're hoping we can go on a little run here in the postseason.

We couldn't get them down. We had a few looks, but we just haven't shot it very well here lately. That's hurting us. Mascoutah got up and guarded us. They did a nice job. That's not the first time we've struggled offensively.

We just didn't shoot it well. We didn't turn the ball over and that was the key. Now all we have to do is knock a few shots down.

We don't make very good decisions sometimes. We start forcing things and then it's over. We just don't make very good passing decisions.

We just have a lot of people in our rotation. We're pretty even after Lucas, we could go with anybody for the next 11 or 12 guys.

We did all right for the first half and played pretty well, but couldn't sustain it.

There's not doubt that hurt us, but we've had about that many turnovers each time we've played them. That's been a weakness of ours this year. Passing was just not one of our strong suits.

They put three guys on Lucas so basically someone had to step up and knock some shots down for us. Once we did that we were able to get him open in the second half.

They get their hands on a lot of basketballs. They're going to get some steals and some transition buckets.

It was a tremendous game before. They had us down and we were able to come back in the fourth quarter. But to win this sectional, it's going to take two tremendous efforts.

It's hard to have one without the other. If you don't get a good screen, or they don't set up the screen, you're probably not going to get a shot. When you don't have a player that's good enough to draw a double-team, you better run an offense that runs a lot of screens, or you might not get a shot.

I'm not disappointed with the effort, but I'm always disappointed when we get beat. We're a proud program, and we don't come in expecting to lose games. It was a loss, but it wasn't a defeat. We battled, but just came up a little short.

If you can't get ready to play a sectional final game, you can't get ready to play basketball.

In Nashville, they like their sports and they like their basketball, so if you're good, you're going to be pretty well known.

It helps to have guys you can bring into the game off the bench. I think (Murphysboro) got a little fatigued and we were able to beat them in overtime.

He's a pretty talented player and he really makes them go. He can shoot it and he's pretty good off the dribble. We had a lot of trouble guarding him the last time we played them.

He's got a lot of talent and he's got size and strength and great hands, quick feet. He has good court vision. All those things add up to make him a pretty good basketball player.

The end of the first quarter absolutely killed us. We left a guy wide open in the first quarter ... and that was big.