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Akron 72 @ Ball State 76,
MAC Tournament First Round Game (03/08/2004)
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| Post-Game
Notes: |
- Derrick
Tarver led Akron with 25 points on 10-25 shooting
- Dru
Joyce added 15 points, and Rick McFadden added 14 for the Zips
- Akron
connected on 9 of 20 three-pointers (45%)
- Robert
Owens led Ball State with 20 points and 9 rebounds in 33 minutes
- Dennis
Trammell added 18 points, and Terrance Chapman added 15
- Peyton
Stovall dished out 8 assists, and Matt McCollom grabbed 7 rebounds
- 13
ties, 11 lead changes
- Bench
points: BSU 20 Akron 7
- Attendance:
4,234
- Ball
State faces #3 Miami Thursday at 2:00 at Cleveland’s Gund Arena
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| Post-Game Quotes:
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| Akron’s Dan Hipshir: |
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| On the game |
| “Well, three times in a row
in the second half, they caught us in a negative mode, and we fought our
tails back to a tie. Chapman hit a big shot, and we didn’t answer back.
Other than that, as you look at the stat line, there’s really only two
differentials – it’s fairly even really, other than we had four more
turnovers, and we kind of made up for that by knocking a few threes down.
And then we made eleven free throws, and they made 16, and that’s about
where you look at the thing. Everything else is pretty square.” |
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| On
Ball
State’s offensive rebounding |
| “I can’t remember the ones
down the stretch, but I remember the ones early in the second half where
we had stops, and we just couldn’t get a rebound off – a couple of
them came flying off. Again, the percentages – everything pretty much
stands there – other than we were trying to get inside, trying to drive
the ball, trying to get to the line, and we just didn’t get there enough
and give ourselves quite enough chances. They did a good job of hustling
and working Derrick (Tarver), but he’s a pretty strong guy, and he got
in there a few times. When Chapman hit the big three, we came back – I
think Derrick got a penetration to the bucket, went for the rebound, and
we just didn’t quite get it.” |
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| On
Ball
State
hitting big shots down the stretch |
| “Well, Chapman hit a big shot
out of the deep corner. You know, it was not the guy that we expected to
– not that he can’t do that – he’s a good player – he just made
a good one – we didn’t quite get out at him real hard, but he also
made a big shot at a big time. And then McCollom got one out of the other
corner. And the play by Owens, that was 76-71 with maybe less than thirty
– we had already tried to foul up the floor and
Rome
(Romeo Travis) just lost it. His play was I guess a nice little highlight,
but he played well during the game – got them some big offensive
rebounds and did a real nice job for them, as did Chapman and Trammell,
who we played pretty well against last time. I thought he played very well
tonight. We got the three line pretty good tonight; they just hit the big
ones when it mattered.” |
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| On Dennis Trammell’s play |
| “He hit some big shots, took
it off the dribble a couple of times, and got a three point play. Again, I
can get it back to those three turnovers in a row in the second half were
big. We had a couple of younger kids handling the ball, and we threw it
away a couple of times. That got them in transition and easy baskets. That
really hurt us.” |
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| On
Ball
State’s 40-32 rebounding edge |
| “Yeah, you know, I look at
it, offensive rebounds, 12-9. They got a few more defensive boards – I
don’t know. They got a couple big ones, like I said, to open the second
half that were big, and there was a differential there. But I don’t know
that that was as big a key as those two jump shots were and those three
turnovers in a row. That’s what I meant that Owens did a nice job
there.” |
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| On both teams having good
freshmen players |
| “Yeah, everybody’s got them
coming and they’re good players – inconsistency at times – but this
league has got such a balance that it seems like it’s a rival game every
night. It’s knock down, drag out. There are a lot of teams that can play
and a lot of guys that can play.” |
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| Ball
State’s Dennis Trammell |
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| Opening Comments |
| “Let me start off by thanking
God, because without God, none of us would be up here right now.”
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| On guarding
Akron’s Derrick Tarver |
| “He’s a good player. Down
low, you’ve got to watch yourself a little bit, because when you try to
front him, you don’t want to get the foul called, so sometimes you’ve
got to just stay behind him and play your best defense. He’s a good
player.” |
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| On his hot spurt in the
middle of the second half |
| “What I was telling myself in
my head, because there were a couple of spurts where Tarver got a couple
of baskets, and I was kind of mad at myself was like, ‘I’ve just got
to go back at him.’ That was
the attitude I had at that point. I just went back at it, and it kind of
opened things for my teammates and myself. That was what I was thinking at
the time. That (someone just taking over the game) was just my focus at
the time.” |
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| On the “rubber match”
with Miami
Thursday |
| “I think whoever wants it
more is going to come out on top. Like you said, we’ve just got to have
that focus and try to execute that game plan. That’s what we’ve got to
worry about. We’ve just got to worry about going out and playing our
best no matter where we’re at.” |
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| On the team’s mindset
heading into the
Akron
game with the up and down season |
| “That thought (do or die) has
been going through my mind all day since I woke up this morning. You’ve
just got to have that confidence. You’ve just got to know you’re going
to do well. You have to know you’re going to execute. You’ve got to
think about what you’re going to do in a game, like getting over screens
and stuff like that. You’ve just got to think about how you’re going
to play in the game. That’s how you get through that nervous stage.”
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| On the MAC tournament draw
and getting a second chance in the post-season |
| “Just like what they said,
it’s wide open. Whoever wants it that night is going to win. You’ve
got to have that mindset and focus to just come out and play with the best
of your abilities and go all out. It’s wide open.” |
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| Ball
State
’s Robert Owens |
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| On his slam dunk in the
final minute |
| “I saw them cheating to the
high side, so I just spun baseline, the opportunity was there, and I just
took advantage of it. Those kinds of plays just happen. You can’t force
them – they just happen. I was able to take advantage of it when it
did.” |
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| On the “rubber match”
with
Miami
Thursday |
| “Wow, it’s probably going
to come down to the end as usual. That’s how it is for us every year.
I’ve never been on a team where we were able to blow them out, so
we’ve got to come in with great focus and a great game plan, and I know
they are too. The better team is going to win.”
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| On guarding
Akron
’s Derrick Tarver |
| “We definitely had to help
off the ball on him. We definitely had to help – everybody…” |
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| On he and Matt McCollom’s
free throw struggles |
| “I think it’s got a little
bit to do with (MAC tournament pressure), but for me it was emotions. It
was my last game in the arena. I played the whole first half teary eyed
kind of. My emotions were so high, and I just needed to calm myself down
and that’s when I was able to make the free throws that I did.” |
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| On the team’s mindset
heading into the
Akron
game with the up and down season |
| “When we lost at Central, we
just said, ‘It’s a new season; forget that.’ Everybody is on the
same page now. Nobody’s really trying to make plays that they can’t
make. We know it’s like one game and you’re out – just try to go out
there and play your hardest and leave everything out on the floor. We did
that tonight. Everybody contributed. Everybody had a positive attitude.
Nobody was over there sulking on the bench. We just played our heart
out.” |
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| On the MAC tournament draw
and getting a second chance in the post-season |
| “You all know March Madness.
Nobody really cares about what you did earlier. It’s about who’s
winning now. We were on kind of a roll in the regular season at the end,
so we just want to ride that momentum. Teams will be coming for us.
We’ve got to go right back at them. I think whoever has the best mindset
and whoever wants it the most is going to win the games. But it is
definitely wide open.” |
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| Ball
State
’s Terrance Chapman |
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| On guarding
Akron
’s Derrick Tarver |
| “He was a tough match up for
us. I think one of the timeouts I asked coach, ‘can I guard him.’
Coach put me on him – he was a pretty tough guy to stop – a pretty
strong guy. I did my best.” |
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| On the MAC tournament draw
and getting a second chance in the post-season |
| “Just like these guys said, I
think it is wide open. Hey, it’s about our mindset, and it just depends
what team can put on a stretch of three good games. Whatever happens,
happens.” |
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| Ball
State
’s Peyton Stovall |
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| On his first MAC tournament
game |
| “From the beginning, I was
nervous. I wanted to do well for REO and these guys. I’ve never been in
this kind of situation before. It was intense. I learned from it, and
I’m ready to go and play hard for these guys, because that’s all I’m
here for. I’m not here for myself. I’m here for these guys. We’re a
close, tight knit, and we just play well together. That’s what I want to
do.” |
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| On making the MAC
all-freshmen team |
| “That’s a great honor. I
never imagined at the beginning of the year that I would be on that team.
A lot of the credit goes to the coaching staff and my teammates to put me
in that kind of position. Just staying close to God – staying close to
God – going to chapel – that kind of stuff helps me out. It was a
great honor.” |
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| On his role |
| “I just want to do whatever I
have to do to win. If one night I have to score, then I’ll score –
I’ll try to do my best to score. If I have to give out assists, then I
am more than willing to give out assists. That’s what I started off
doing at the beginning of the year, and we did really well. I like seeing
REO and Dennis and them get up and dunk it and shooting the treys and
stuff. I look up to these guys, and that is something that I would like to
be like when I’m a senior and junior.” |
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| On the MAC tournament draw
and getting a second chance in the postseason |
| “Really, it’s tournament
time – everybody wants to win, nobody wants to go home. Everybody is
going to come out. It’s a dog fight every game. Nobody wants to lose.
Anybody can win on a given night. It’s just one game at a time, and
whoever is best on that night is going to go.” |
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| Ball
State
’s Tim Buckley |
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| On this being a survive and
move on type of game |
| “Well, I think
Akron
had something to do with (
Ball
State
not playing as well as they would have liked). This is as well as I’ve
seen
Akron
play. I thought Dan did a terrific job of getting his team ready to come
and play on the road with one day of preparation. They gave us everything
they had. They have a good basketball team. Obviously they had to make
some adjustments this year when they let a player go. Andy Hipshir has
been hurt all year. They all came out and played like warriors.”
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|
| On his team making big plays |
| Yeah, I think that is what you
have to do in these kinds of games. You’ve got to make winning plays.
Sometimes that takes the form of a play like REO made or Terrance made or
Matt made. It also comes in the form of getting a loose ball and making
the big stop. I thought we did those things when we needed to.
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| On his team’s confidence |
| “I think what helped us was,
once the anxiety wore off – because I thought we were really excited
about playing – I thought we might have been tight early on – but once
that anxiety wore off, I thought we really settled in and played much
better and got refocused when we needed to.” |
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| On the “rubber match”
with
Miami
Thursday |
| “We know it is going to be a
difficult game. Our women are also playing
Miami
, so I think that’s pretty neat. It’s a great rivalry, yet we also
have great respect for their staff and their players. Hopefully it will be
a good basketball game. |
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| On
Akron
’s Derrick Tarver |
| “He really did a good job.
They went to him early and often in the second half, and we really
didn’t have an answer for him. So what we decided to do was put Terrance
Chapman on him, who is a little bit bigger and stronger. If nothing else,
we wanted to try to force him outside to have to try to make plays out
there instead of the lane. I thought Terrance did a fantastic job.” |
| “(Terrance) may have (asked
to guard Tarver during a timeout). I didn’t hear him, but we think the
same. We did give him that assignment. If he asked for it, and if he’s
going to play like that on Thursday, then I heard him say it, and that is
what he wanted to do.” |
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| On Robert Owens’ play |
| “REO talked to the team
before the game tonight. I don’t know what he said, nor does anybody
else on the coaching staff, but I think what that helped him do was get
himself focused and ready. He did all of the things that we’ve needed
from him all year. I think he felt like this was his last time going out
on the floor and he wanted to do everything possible to help us win.
Whether we came out with the win or we didn’t, I thought he played a
winning basketball game.” |
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| On his team’s mindset |
| “To be honest, I think it has
been good all year. We’ve had a couple of bumps in the road, but
they’ve always responded. We came back from the UConn game, and they
were really down, but we saw something in the team where we competed and
played well. We got off to a really good start in the league – we were
five and one – and then we played some tough games on the road against
some of the better teams in the league and just couldn’t get over the
hump. They still bounced back from that. We hit a real big bump against
Detroit
, and we’ve still not talked about the
Detroit
game. We just came in the next day and practiced and got in the right
frame of mind. Ever since then, I think we’ve played pretty good
basketball.” |
| “I think it’s been a growth
process. I think it’s been maturity in understanding how we need to play
to be successful. I think the guy who has probably shown it the most on
our team has probably been Jesse McClung. I thought Jesse was terrific
tonight, and if Jesse hadn’t played the way he had in the first half, I
don’t know if we would have been in the ball game. I’ve seen that
coming from him. I think different guys come at different times. Cameron
didn’t shoot the ball particularly well tonight, but then those other
guys came in and played the way they did. I think they really have each
other’s back, and they’re really starting to play for each other,
which has been the theme the entire year.”
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| On treating the
Central Michigan
game the previous Saturday like the Detroit
game |
| “That’s as well as Central
has played all year. I thought we played pretty well and pretty hard. We
had 53 deflections, which means you’re playing hard. I don’t know if
we played with a lot of purpose. We only blocked out 43% of the time, only
challenged 79% of the shots, and we turned the ball over 19 times. So we
played hard, but we just didn’t play with purpose. I thought tonight we
played with a lot more purpose.” |
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| On Chapman’s big
three-point shot followed by him blocking a three-point shot attempt on
the ensuing defensive possession |
| I thought it was big.
I looked over at (the media), and you said, "get him out.” That
was his fourth foul, but we decided to keep him in the game for the
offensive possession and then wanted to go back with Michael (Bennett) on
the defensive end. It worked out. It isn’t like we designed anything,
but Terrance was ready to shoot the ball. He's shot it with a lot of
confidence here late in the season, and then Matt McCollom hit a big three
as well right after that. Those were two really key plays.” |
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| On Robert Owens’ big dunk
and three-point play with under a minute to go |
| “Not necessarily (was he mad
at Owens for making the move), because he was really on the attack, and he
caught their guy cheating. We know with their zone defense they really
like to get out and extend, so you have to make plays on the baseline. He
made an instinctive play, finished it out the right way, and got the free
throw too. I thought it was an outstanding play on his part.” |
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| On junior college players
late in their first division I season |
| “I wouldn’t say that junior
college players wear down. What I would say is that junior college players
get more acclimated late in the season, because it’s a different
approach to things. I think usually, out of a junior college player, you
get at least a good year and a half out of them, because it’s a big
adjustment for them – academically, athletically, they don’t have to
ride on the vans anymore, they get on the bus, and they’re pretty well
taken care of – so I think once they get adjusted to life the way it is
at a four year school; I think they adapt. Obviously Terrance has shown
that, and I think Cameron probably showed it a lot earlier last year, only
because we really needed him to with Theron (Smith) being out with the
injury.” |
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| On Peyton Stovall being
named to the MAC all-freshmen team |
| “He
should have been freshman of the year, but that’s alright. We’ll load
that fuel on the bus.” |
