Recap | Final Stats | Notes

Louisiana (16-3, 6-0 Sun Belt) 77 at UT Arlington (12-8, 3-4 Sun Belt) 65
Thursday, January 18, 2018
College Park Center - Arlington, Texas

POSTGAME QUOTES

UTA Head Coach Scott Cross
Opening thoughts on the game: "It was definitely the tale of two halves. The first half we played extremely well on both ends of the floor. We moved the ball. We executed. We played with toughness and grit defensively. We got stops, Johnny (Hamilton) was blocking shots. In the second half, we got tight. We panicked and we didn't play off the pick-and-roll like we did in the first half. We have two of the most talented players in the league in Kevin Hervey and Erick Neal but they didn't work to make each other better off the pick-and-roll. So, they stymied us on that and we got in a funk and started taking bad shots. Then, they started hitting shots. Our defensive intensity dropped and we couldn't stop them. We let our offense dictate our defense and we didn't use our defense to create any offense and they dominated us in the second half. There's a reason why they're in first place in the league. Right now, (Louisiana is) definitely the best team in the league, and hopefully our guys can grow from this and work on some things. I think the number one thing is we need to grow mentally as a team. And number two is to continue to force ourselves to be as tough as possible. Especially in the second half they looked a lot tougher than us, in the first half we were right there with them but in the second half it really showed."

Thoughts on Kevin Hervey's fast start: "Well we were able to get him the ball off the pick-and-roll and he's a dynamic player. So, when you get him the ball in good situations he can score and make plays for other guys. He's a weapon, but in the second half we didn't use him in the pick and roll correctly and he tries to take over and dribbles the ball around and gets away from what he's really good at. Our guys have to stick to the game plan. What was working in the first half would've worked in the second half had we executed. To me they didn't make any adjustments in the second half. They were guarding us the game way in the pick and roll, we just didn't execute. They might have picked up their defensive intensity but that was the only thing I saw. We kind of just self-destructed to be honest."

Thoughts on Kevin Hervey moving into second among UTA's career scoring leaders: "Well, that's a tremendous accomplishment. I believe Anthony Vereen was second if I'm not mistaken. Anthony was a guy that carried us and put us on his back and led us to the NCAA tournament. Every time we threw the ball in the post, Anthony was a walking bucket. Kevin is such a versatile guy, he can score down low, he can shoot it, drive it, and he's a great offensive rebounder. So that's special to pass up some of those guys that I've been a part of and had the opportunity to coach. They're great, great basketball players. So, for him to pass them up and be second on the list in a 60 year history it's pretty impressive. I know the only guy in front of him is Willie Brand and I know he was incredible at scoring the basketball. I'm sure Kevin will continue to grow and he'll get close but I think Willie's a little bit too far ahead of him. But it's a significant accomplishment of what Kevin's been able to do. "

How they plan to turn things around for ULM on Saturday: "Well we have to refocus quickly. I guess that's the beautiful thing about playing Thursday-Saturday. If you lose a game you have a chance to redeem yourselves on Saturday, and that's what we're gonna look to do. I'll watch the tape until late tonight and try to find some things to show the guys where we can improve and where we came up short. But we have to build them back up and get their confidence back where it was in the first half. We need to play confident vs Monroe, they're a good defensive team so we are going to have to turn around quickly and hopefully bounce back on our winning track."