Dec. 10, 2005
Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery
HEAD COACH Brian Gregory
"I'm obviously very disappointed in our second half performance. They took it too us and they played harder than we did. I think they had a 23-16 advantage on the glass and that, the rebounding, was the difference to the game. We have not yet developed that personality where sometimes you got to bear down you got to be grounded in the things that you know you can do that are going to help you win games and that is potentially rebound the ball and play within yourself offensively. We struggled in both those areas in the second half, we got to play within ourselves a little bit. Back to the drawing board on that, we didn't take a step forward today."
"We're just as big as they are so I don't think size played that much into it. We weren't physical enough and we didn't play a physical game. We didn't cut out, we let guys fly to the glass. We didn't wedge out inside and you play a team that's on the road and I think that they were disappointed in a couple of the games that they played so they went out hungry, especially in the second half, and that was the difference in the game."
"We struggled guarding (Mejia) off the dribble, we had three different guys try to guard him. And you know, he's their upperclassman who has been through the wars and the battles, and he stepped up big tonight, you know obviously played his best game of the year when they needed it most."
"We out-rebounded them in the first half. They had two offensive rebounds they end up with 10 so we gave them eight in the second half. We had made some strides in us embracing the physical game. We definitely did not embrace that physical game tonight. And you are not going to beat a Big East team if you're not going to play physical."
"We got to have a great flow offensively at times. Exclude the Creighton game because we played pretty well offensively. And the fact that we got to play defense, we got to take some individual pride that you're going to stop somebody. We play pretty good team defense but sometimes you got to have the toughness to say I'm going to lock this guy up and he is not going to get a shot. We gave them a wide open shot in the corner with about three minutes to go we fell asleep on the baseline. In clutch time you can't, we gave up to many open shots today where we were around a guy and just didn't have a hand up aggressively enough."
"That's why we try to push the ball and try to attack before the defense is set and that requires a lot of good decision making and at times we struggled with that."
(Last four minutes of first half) "We did not have direction offensively that we needed at that time."
(On the post in the second half) "They just got the ball taken from them, I mean a guy does it once or twice you got to figure that is what they are going to do. He tried it the last time but no one would make the one play but if the ball is being poked out that means that the ball is behind you. And when you play with the ball behind you in the perimeter or the post you're in trouble. You can't play with the ball behind you, you got to play with the ball in front of you."
(Warren Williams) "No he's not in a slump, you know, he just takes quality shots. He's shooting it okay, he just needs to make sure he is taking quality shots. He's got tough pass in front of him, when he plays really well then obviously we're a much better team. He's got a lot of duties and he needs to perform and the shooting is secondary, its down the list. He's got to make open shots, when he's not we need to get him open shots. He'll make those, he made two open ones today. They were big shots for us, but they came within the flow of the offense as well."
"We have to shoot well to be good, that's the bottom line. If we don't shoot well, we're in trouble. We're still trying to generate some stuff inside, and in the first half we did a good job of that. But we didn't respond to how they changed the defense in the post in the second half, so you've got to make shots then."
"When you play good defensive teams, it's going to be hard to score. I'm never worried about how many points we are going to score as long as we score more than they do. I am concerned that we didn't do that tonight."
DEPAUL HEAD COACH JERRY WAINWRIGHT
"I think it was big for us to get our first road win with a young team. It is really a critical win for us. We have been in a lot of games this year on the road, but we lost one at Northern (Illinois). Then we were tied with a minute to go against Bucknell and they hit a big shot to put us behind the eight ball. We need to win. Taking somebody's best shot, especially in an arena like this. It will mean a lot to our kids, especially our young players."
"We have Wake (Forest), Old Dominion and Cal (California) in the next three games so it was important for us to get started."
What led to your second half run?
"One difference was that we were able to get running a little bit. I thought we stopped running in the first half and it turned into a bit of a grinder. After halftime we got some really good looks in transition. We scored on some 3-on-2s and 2-on-1s, which kinda gave us some cushion."
How did you familiarity with Dayton help you prepare for this game?
"One thing that really helped us was that we didn't have a lot of time leading up to the game and we had a really good handle on their personnel. Brian Roberts is a really good kid and they have really good players. They (Dayton) have had some really good wins as they beat Cincinnati."
"Coming into this game, a lot of our players have been part of Dayton games in the past. They played against Dayton in the NCAAs a couple of years ago and up at our place when the series began last season. I think it was a good win for us and it was a lot like a conference game for us."
On the play of Sammy Mejia
"He is a streaky shooter, but I think the big thing for us was running in transition. That really opened up his shot and gave him some good looks at the basket."
What do you take away from this win?
"We have a tough stretch ahead of us, but we got a lot from this game tonight. Anytime you can take a team's best shot and win, it is good for your growth as a team."
DEPAUL JUNIOR SAMMY MEJIA
"We came out with a lot of energy in the second half and we didn't let the crowd get to us, which was big. We were able to convert some big shots on the offensive end."`
What did you expect from Dayton tonight?
"We knew they were going to try to go inside on us. They have a lot of bigger guys than we have. We just tried to take away the perimeter and make your big guys beat us. Our big guys did a good job of keeping their arms straight up and making them take shots over us."
How familiar were you with Dayton?
"The crowd was incredible and Dayton is an NCAA type team. I am sure they will be in there at the end of the year. It is a big win for us, especially on the road."
What allowed you to have a hot shooting performance in the second half?
"I just tried to stay aggressive. My biggest concern was to not stay back on my heel, just because I missed some shots. Sometimes the best thing is to sit down for 15 minutes at halftime and just try to come out as aggressive as I was in the first half."
