Ron Hop Quotations

For us to be successful, Sergio has to rebound the basketball and he's doing that. If he can rebound, we're going to be successful. If he has a big night scoring then obviously that's a bonus, but we have other guys that can shoot the basketball.

Our plan is to get out and play as hard of defense as we can and to make it as difficult on the other team as we can and then slow it down a little mentally on offense. Not necessarily slow the ball down, but take good open shots on offense. They went zone on us and we moved the ball really well. We didn't have just one pass and shoot and that's key for us. Before, when we were struggling, we were passing once and shooting.

We haven't had many wins since I've been coaching here. It's a sure lift. We're happy to get the win tonight.

We played a much better second half than they did.

Those two played good defense on him and that was key for us.

We were pretty much in the game the whole way. We were within four late in the game and had a 3-pointer rattle out and they scored three straight buckets in a row. We never really got over the hump.

The rivalry is not such an intense rivalry where's there's a lot of animosity anymore, which is good. Rivalries are good, but not when it's a ?I hate you' type of rivalry. Those aren't always good games.

It would be a huge boost for us and a huge boost for our kids.

Once again, we shot a lot free throws in this game. Over half of them were in the fourth quarter. We shot free throws pretty well today, 19 of 30 is not bad. It's not great. Definitely it was not like what we had the night before, but we made them down the stretch. That's what counts.

I'm happy with how the kids played in the playoff game. That's important. We've got to go on the road and play Westside Christian now. That's a tough place to play. We need to get a win there. If we do that, we play well and play well enough to get a win, so be it. It will be good for our program. It will be good for our kids. We've got young kids. I'm proud of the way they're playing.

In the first half we built up a little of a lead, but we took some risks. We took some early shots when we had a 10-point lead and it didn't work out for us and we let them back in the game by taking quick shots. Amity came down and scored. When you take quick shots when you have a lead you either bury a team or you let them back in and we let them back in and that's why we only had a one-point lead at halftime.

In the third quarter, we opened up a lead. That was pretty much the game.

I think our guards and the whole team played a smart game and capitalized on what the other team was giving us.

The key for us is that Sergio has to rebound and he did an outstanding job. I know it's not always the fun thing to do, but he's doing an excellent job on the boards and that's why we're playing better.

The game was back and forth in the first half. Actually we never trailed, I think the game was tied at two and we never trailed from there. It was always close in the first half, a three to five point game for us. It pretty much stayed like that until halftime when we were up by three.