Jan. 3, 2014

Recap | Final Stats | Photo Gallery 1 | Photo Gallery 2

South Carolina Head Coach Frank Martin
Opening Statement
We got totally outplayed and I was caught completely off guard. We have had good practices that last couple of days and the enthusiasm was good and for whatever reason that didn’t transfer over to today. We had no business winning today and I think that the only reason that we won today is because we played well coming into this game so we felt that we should win. If we were coming off of a loss we probably don’t figure out a way to win today and it is disappointing. I thought we had taken some steps in the right direction and obviously we regressed today. Hats off to the South Carolina State staff. I have been in the same situation and it is hard to be in the shoes that they are walking in right now. To play all the games that they have played and all of the road games and to have those kids so in tune and play so connected and be so excited about what they are doing, it is a credit to that staff and those kids. That is how the game should be played and our kids need to learn that a little bit.

Senior Guard Brenton Williams
On speaking to the team in the huddle after SC State tied it up…
The main thing that I was communicating to our guys is that they were beating us on defensive rebounds. We were getting them to miss shots, but they would out-hustle us to get the rebounds and that led to them getting a lot of baskets. That is about all that I said, is that we needed to tighten that up.

Junior Guard Tyrone Johnson
On being able to get a victory out of a close game…
We have been in this situation with USC Upstate so we put a fight up for this one and we know that we can’t lose on our home court. We need to defend our home court and come out and play like we know we can play, help each other and talk and score baskets. And that’s what we did.

South Carolina State Head Coach Murray Garvin
Thoughts on tonight’s game…
I told our guys that it was our last chance to win an out of conference game against a high-major opponent. We wanted to try to pull off something epic, something we would be remembered for. Now that is behind us and we move onto MEAC play. We have to get prepared for Maryland-Eastern Shore on Wednesday night. I give credit to Coach Martin and his coaching staff because they did a good job of persevering and fighting through a tough basketball game. At the same time, I’m also so proud of our basketball program.

On how tonight’s game can get them ready for conference play…
If you can compete against an SEC opponent like we did, and have an opportunity to win the game, it should tell our guys that if we stay together and keep working every day, that we should be able to get to MEAC play and be very competitive and make an impact in the league this year.