Jan. 14, 2010
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Oakland Head Coach Greg Kampe
On their winning home record
"No championship is ever won in January, but you can lose them in January. We're used to winning at home and we have won 13 straight league games at home. We believe we shouldn't lose at home and to be the program we want to be, we have to win our home games. We feel confident, but smart enough to know anybody can beat you at any time. Every game is a game in itself. We don't look ahead or worry about anything else. We're going to get ready for Southern Utah and we've had trouble with them. They're one of those programs that for some reason, we always struggle against them. There's no doubt they can come in and beat us. Are we the better team? Records would say yes, but they could come in and beat us. We have to win that game if we want to win a championship."
On Will Hudson's status
"I wasn't going to play him, but when they made that run, he said he could play. It's one of those ankles that's going to be a lot worse tomorrow than it is now. I'm very worried about him being able to play this weekend, but we'll be prepared to go without him. I think he was a key factor in the game tonight. But others will step in for him and I thought Drew Maynard was great in the first half."
Junior Keith Benson
On his confidence at the free throw line
"I had some extra shots in practice because we knew they would be a little under-sized. I was just trying to make them."
On UMKC not having a true post player and what freedoms that gave him
"I was able to move in and out more and keep the ball high."
Freshman Ledrick Eackles
On his performance tonight
"Coach has emphasized me coming off the bench and giving that spark. I'm trying to be as consistent as possible and I thought I brought a good spark tonight to get a win over a pretty good team."
On taking the initiative to score
"I just take what is given to me and I am not going to hesitate if I feel I can knock it down. If you hesitate, you have a high percentage of missing your shots."
On his playing time
"I don't complain about playing time. As long as we win, I am as happy as we can be."
UMKC Coach Matt Brown
Opening Statement
"I think they got their 17 point lead, I think it was sometime in the first half, we cut it to 12 sometime there and cut it down to four points in the second half. Traditionally this is how our games have been, they have gotten some pretty substantial leads there, they got lethargic and I thought that if we kept pushing it ahead we would have a chance to come back in the game. The difference in the game was definitely the foul line they got there 20 more times than we did."
On the ability to stay in the game
"Well, right now we don't have any seniors. We are trying to be where they are right now. We have four freshman, five sophomores and four juniors and two kids sitting out right now. So, this is going to be our team for the next year so in terms of our program we are going to get better and better. But we don't quit too and we are going to cause some problems for some people too because in the past UMKC has not been a very good basketball team."
On making 3-pointers during the game
"Our plan was to take Benson away from the basket. Last year, Spencer Johnson had 26 points and tonight from the center position Spencer had 17 and Kirk Korver had 15, so 34 of our points came from the 5-position because we thought that if we got him away from the basket than we could hit jump shots and that's what we did tonight."
On the team's play despite record
"I think right now we are trying to build a program. This is my third year here and last year I had a bunch of freshman and sophomores, we took a transfer Jay Couisnard our leading scorer and two other kids that have to sit out. To answer your question, we are going to go through some growing pains this year. I think we may be in the middle of the pack this year but we will have everybody back plus two kids so I expect us to be in the top of the league next year."
