Jan. 29, 2009
Recap | Box Score | Notes
HEAD COACH Greg Kampe
Opening Statement
"They did the things they needed to do in the last six minutes of the game. They made free throws. We missed free throws and made young mistakes because we are a young team. We made some of the mistakes that have haunted us throughout the season. They deserved to win because they did the little things you had to do to win."
On down the stretch
"We missed free throws and they didn't. We put their non-shooters on the line and they made free throws. They had three or four shots hit the rim, hit the backboard and go in, even free throws. It was just their night. Their home, their night, they are a veteran team that is trying to win a championship."
On Will not getting the ball more in the second half
"Late in the game JJ (Johnathon Jones) was trying to get the ball to (Erik) Kangas and Kito (Keith Benson), and that is why Will did not get the ball as much. We wanted the guys that have been there for us. We're such a young team, that we wanted those guys to get the shots."
On NDSU shutting down Kangas
"It's interesting. Coaches are great people. If we're missing shots, then we had an off night, but if the other team is missing shots, well then we played great defense. Who really knows? They played hard and defended him. He makes those shots and he misses those shots. Tonight he missed them. Most nights he makes them. He came in making 23 of hist last 35, or something like that, so you knew he would have to miss at some point, and mean nobody can do that. He was still 3-for-10 from three, which is 30 percent. It didn't look good at all, nothing like it did those other games. Maybe it was fatigue, maybe that was their defense, I'm not smart enough to know all those things."
On that effecting the rest of the team
"No I thought we played a pretty good game. I thought that was a very good basketball game. I think there was a stretch where they made a run at home and broke it open. For 32 or 34 minutes, that was a pretty damn good game. We had four guys in double figures, and another with seven. We only have eight scholarship players and we're only playing seven guys. So it's not like we are going to get a bunch of scoring from a lot of places."
On NDSU's Mike Nelson and Lucas Moorman
"Yeah Nelson got nothing against us the last time we played them and he made some big shots in that little run. I think he made two threes in that 14-0 run, or whatever that was, and one was really deep, the other hit the front of the rim, the the backboard, came back and went in. He's a senior. I mean they're a good team and good things happened to them. From my standpoint, I would rather have that happen here than in Sioux Falls. It would be tough for us to beat them three times. A lot of good things went their way, and you know what, they're a good team."
On having a strong advantage in the frontcourt and this being a matchup in Sioux Falls that OU would exploit
"What I would like is to go beat South Dakota State. That is all I can worry about right now. We have to play them on Saturday and that is the most important thing. We'll play it out and at the end we'll look at who is where. With the loss, if we play well the rest of the way, we're probably going to be third. If we don't play well we could slip to fourth or fifth. We could end up playing them if they fall to second, or if we slip to fifth or sixth, who knows. I am not even going to think about that until that day comes."
On Moorman's play
"Well he made his free throws. We tried to do some things in the first half. I think they were shooting like 33 percent at one of the media timeouts, and at the half they were shooting 56 percent. I think a lot of that was that we let (Ben) Woodside get loose, and he made the dump off to Moorman who made point blank shots. That was more our bad defense I think. I mean I would hope that he would make those shots. But he guarded well and made some critical free throws for them. Yes I think he played a good game and was a major factor in their win tonight."
SOPHOMORE FORWARD Will Hudson
On the inside game tonight for OU
"We wanted to work inside. Work on our inside-out game. The plays that we were running helped that. Kito (Keith Benson) and the other bigs, me included, were finishing."
On the key down the stretch
"Some mental mistakes and missed free throws. We can't turn the ball over (like we did) down the stretch. That really hurt us."
On North Dakota State doing anything different down the stretch on him
"I'm not sure they did anything different."
On getting a sense that it was going to go down to the wire again
"Every time we have played them it has gone down to the wire. In my career, we have played them three times, and they have all gone down to the wire. So I definitely thought this one was going to too."
On feeling confident that OU would pull it out
"I thought for sure we were going to pull it out down the stretch. When we played them back at our place it went right down to the end and we pulled it out. I mean the last couple of times we have played them, we have been able to do that. So I had no reason to think anything different."
NDSU Head Coach Saul Phillips
Opening statement
"I'm proud of the way our guys battled through a rocky defensive start. Sam Sussenguth and Dejuan Flowers both banged around inside for us. Our big lineup was able to step up and take away what was hurting us. We're able to win games small like we did at South Dakota State, and tonight we were able to win with a big lineup. I'd also like to point out the job that Mike Nelson did on Eric Kangas. Without that effort, it's a different game. Mike has a special gift for defending that kind of player. Luke Moormann is the final guy to single out in a game like this. I'm very proud of the way our guys hung in there. We showed good character against an excellent offensive team."
Was it pretty big to finally beat Oakland?
"It feels pretty good. I cautioned the guys not to get carried away with it. We lost to them three times in a heartbreaking way, but I tried not to use that as motivation. This isn't the Karate Kid. I told them, you've got to try to do things a little bit better next time."
Did you sense that the game was going to go down to the wire?
"Yes, I did. I even had a note card with six of the last-second plays that Oakland runs and I had five that we could run as well. I usually have one play drawn up for the end of a game, but I thought that this game could warrant something unusual."
They were throwing the ball over the post players early. How did you stop that?
"It really helped for us to go big. It was a combination of realizing where the help defense needed to come from and making those adjustments. Putting our big players in there made it more awkward for the Oakland players to finish those shots."
About defensive adjustments to hold Oakland to 35% shooting in the second half...
"Our guys had the right mindset. Sam Sussenguth and Dejuan Flowers don't have a lot on the stat sheet, but they made things more difficult for the Oakland players. You just keep plugging away and digging as hard as you can."
About Lucas Moormann and Mike Nelson's performance down the stretch...
"Luke's always had a knack for making big plays. Last year, he knocked down a big three against Oakland. He's got a flair for the dramatic. He makes big plays at big times. He plays so darn hard that generally good things are going to happen. Mike Nelson had a complete all-around game. He's a special kid and works hard in so many ways. To be able to have the kind of legs and make the plays he did down the stretch is pretty special."
On how the team has matured in big games...
"It takes a mature team to stand toe-to-toe with a team like Oakland. You obviously need to have a lot of talent, but boy does that experience help. You've got to have the battle scars from tough losses and you have to have that learning curve to get to the point where we are now, which is a confident team down the stretch."
North Dakota State guard Mike Nelson
About hearing the crowd's excitement late in the game...
"Yeah, I actually ran back on defense and it was so loud, I was trying to call out screens and I couldn't even hear my own voice. It was that loud. It was an unbelievable atmosphere. We are lucky to play in front of a crowd like this."
About breaking through against Oakland finally...
"It was huge. With them beating us the last three times by one (possession), we felt it might have come down to the bitter end again, but we got a good lead on them and it was good to get a win against Oakland."
