Feb. 3, 2011

Recap | Final Stats | Notes | AP Photo Gallery

SOUTH CAROLINA HEAD COACH Darrin Horn

On why the team shot so well from three point range …
“I just think we did a better job offensively and playing as a team. Sharing the basketball and making the extra pass. It was everybody. It was a very balanced attack and really we just played more as a team. I can’t believe we only had seven assists, it seem like we had more than that. “

On Malik Cooke getting 12 points off the bench …
“He just gave us great energy. He grabbed a couple of boards and he just gave us some presence down inside. I think offensively he did a really good job for us. Sometimes he would make the extra pass which led to the basket. He just gave us a lot of energy.”

On Bruce Ellington’s play …
“He is a terrific player and above that he is a winner. When you look at the top point guards in the country in his class, if you take the top 10 or 12 that came out last year in the rankings, and you look at what he is doing for his team in the different statistical categories he is right up there with the best in the country.”

On LSU making the run at the end of the game …
“You expect the home team to do that. I was a little disappointed in one of the threes that we gave up because I thought we lost (Aaron) Dotson in the corner. You expect the home team to make a run but I thought we responded to it.”

On what they did defensively to stop LSU …
“The biggest thing we wanted to do was not give them anything easy. We were concerned about matchups coming into the games because they have a couple of guys capable of big nights. (Ralston) Turner coming off his injury and (Andre) Stringer is very explosive, and they are very big at every position and we are obviously not. We were concerned about matchups and we just tried to play as hard as possible.”

SOUTH CAROLINA PLAYER QUOTES
Sophomore Forward Lakeem Jackson

On the keys to victory…
“The only thing we could do was come out and have a hard practice from the last game. We didn’t really play as well. We just needed to come out and play hard.”

On attacking in the paint…
“One of our main goals was to pound the ball inside. Every time it goes in something good happens when we get inside the paint. We just wanted to move it around and get some good, clean looks inside for Sam [Muldrow].”

On rebounding from the LSU comeback…
“We just had to keep our heads in the game. We’ve been through it before and just had to keep fighting and do what we do well.”