Feb. 9, 2008

Recap | Final Stats | Notes | AP Action Photos

South Carolina head coach Dave Odom

“Sometimes when you lose, in the quietest moments, even standing out their saluting our students, you ask yourself, `Why did that happen?’ Sometimes there are no answers. You know I had a hard time coming up with a reason that game ended the way it did–making a three-point basketball with 0.05 seconds left on the clock. As you move away from that, you find there is an answer. The answer is that they made one more big play than we did at the right time. Their biggest play came at the biggest moment in the game.”

“We gave them too much time to answer. You have to take a basket when you get them. Dwayne [Day] hit a miraculous lay-up.”

“It is a difficult loss, but we fought against a lot of odds. Still we had enough baskets to win, but not enough defense.”

“Evaldas [Baniulis] had one of his best games offensively. He is a little more of a factor on defense, but he’s still not as aware as he needs to be and he gave up some inside baskets. He does cause enough problems for other teams.”

“Dwayne Day played very well. Foster is a hard guard; he shoots an awkward shot and from way deep.”

South Carolina Player Quotes

Evaldas Baniulis

“It does hurt to lose this game. I’d rather be blown out than to lose like this.”

“I didn’t play differently tonight. I just shot the ball every chance I had and it went in.”

(on playing better defense): “I just need to commit to my man. I can’t be looking around to see what someone else is doing in both practice and games. I have to stop my own guy.”

Devan Downey

“[This loss] hurts because I feel like we played hard enough to win the game; we just couldn’t hold them down the stretch.”

“After I made the shot, I knew six seconds was a lot of time. We had bad communication on defense, and we lost as a team. It doesn’t matter whose man Beal was; we all lost.”

On his mild concussion yesterday in practice: “I felt fine today. I didn’t have my best game, but it has nothing to do with that.”

“Evka [Baniulis] was hot so I tried to get him the ball and create some opportunities.”

“I feel like so many times we had a chance. We are playing better basketball. Now we just have to come in on Monday and get ready for Georgia. That’s all we can do.”

Dwayne Day

“I have never hurt this bad. This is by far the toughest loss, but all I can do is go home and prepare for our next game.”

“I don’t know what happened on the last play of the game. I was totally focused on keeping Shan Foster from getting the ball. I was looking at him the whole time and then when I turned away I saw the ball go through the basket.”

“This happened for some reason; God put us in this position. We just have to move on and get ready for the next one.”

“This game was a big deal for us. Coach said not to make it a big deal, but Devan [Downey] said it was a big deal and we wanted to win. We wanted to have three wins in a row.”

“We’ve got to hold our heads high. There are a few more games in the season, and we need to try to make the best of them.”

Vanderbilt head coach Kevin Stallings

“It was a great game on both sides. I was talking with Coach Odom after the game, and we said to each other that every game we play is always terrific.”

“Shan [Foster] and A.J. [Ogilvy] came out and played their best games in awhile. I was pleased with their play tonight.”

“Six seconds is more than enough. Four can get you down the court. We ran a circular route to get it in. Their guards were confused on who they should guard, and Jermaine [Beal] took it and made the shot. Big time players make big time plays on the road.”

“We’ll continue to get better. We played with energy and passion. At the end of a six game road stretch, it gets tough. They gutted it out and that’s what we needed.”