Dec. 28, 2005

Recap | Box Score | Notes

South Carolina Head Coach Dave Odom

“We didn’t make free throws, they did. We didn’t get defensive rebounds, they got offensive rebounds, particularly in the first half.”

“We made ill-advised, unforced turnovers and inopportune times. We didn’t make a lot of turnovers — 11. Four or five of them were careless, just not focusing, and they all came at gut-wrenching times. Therein lies the difference in the game. In the first half, I thought our defense was outstanding. I thought we played extremely well. Holding a team like Pitt to 20 points in the first half, I don’t care where you’re playing – we played really well. That’s probably the key to the game, the fact we played great defense, that we had them down eight or 10 or 12 points and we didn’t build on the lead when we had a chance to do so. Our offense didn’t get its job done and we let them back in the game.”

“Sam Young did his damage with six offensive rebounds. I can remember four those that he put back. That was a big factor in the game. “

“It was a disappointing game, a disappointing loss. It’s a game I though we could win. We’re not playing as well as we need to play right now. We’ve got to play harder, to play better, coach better, all of it. We’ve all got to do a better job, and we will.”

Pittsburgh Head Coach Jamie Dixon

“It was a very good win against a very good team. I read somewhere that they only had two non-conference losses in this building. Not many people come in here and get a win. It was a good job on our part.”

“When you get two very good teams from two great conferences, this is what they are. You’re in the 50’s and 60’s (point ranges). When you have two good teams, it’s hard to get those points.”

“They’re defense is good. They didn’t give us a lot of easy shots. We had to wear them down. We didn’t convert as well as we should inside, and that’s a credit to their defense.”

“I thought we did a good job moving the ball. We were a little impatient but we executed down the stretch. We called a timeout when we were down eight points and said `Let’s execute,’ and that’s what we did for the next 30 minutes.”