Feb. 12, 2011

Recap | Final Stats | Notes

South Carolina Head Coach Darrin Horn
Opening Statement…
We all just got to witness a terrific college basketball game, I think two teams were really fighting out there. I’m unbelievably proud of our guys, the character and fight that we showed. It is incredibly difficult to do what our young team did today; to have a first half like we did offensively, which was an absolute fluke. I’ve been in this game a long time, and you can be bad offensively, but to have single digits, I’ve never been involved in a game where either team had that happen. Obviously, our confidence was shook with our young group, for us to bounce back and fight the way we did the second half, and make the plays that we did with contributions from so many different guys, is really a step for our team.

On Bruce Ellington…
He didn’t want to come out but I think it started cramping and it was sore, but you know the bigger the moment the more he wants to be a part of it. I said you know I’ll run (the final 3-point attempt of the game) it for you if you want it and he said `absolutely, I want it coach.’

On Sam Muldrow breaking the block record…
I’m really, really proud of Sam. He’s been just a pleasure to coach; he’s a hard worker, and a tremendous kid. He’s another guy whose confidence could have been shook, has not played great as of late, didn’t have a good first half, but came out the second half. It’s good to see him get that and I think the one he actually got it on too was in great fashion, break away against our pressure, he went and just saved the day like he’s done many times before.

On Malik Cooke and RJ Slawson…
I thought Malik gave us great lift, he brought us energy, got some put backs, had a nice block. Still waiting for him to finish that steal on the break. He did some really good things for us. I thought RJ Slawson was really good tonight. He continued to get his hands on the ball and make plays. I think we had a lot of guys that did some positive things like that.

Georgia Head Coach Mark Fox
Opening statement…
That was a tale of two halves. It feels good to leave here with a win. I knew that Coach Horn’s team would battle back, and we talked about that at the half. This is a competitive group that was down 14 or 16 points to Vanderbilt and came storming back to win the game. They’ve been in that situation before and found victory. We tried to avoid it and did, but it certainly got interesting in the second half. I’m proud of my team for winning the game.

On if the victory meant more since it was a close win…
Every team has close games. We’ve had some very tough losses, which lots of teams do. The ball probably hasn’t bounced our way in a couple of those and a couple breaks haven’t gone our way, but you have to keep going. That’s part of athletics. We’ve won a lot of close games too. I think that today we feel rewarded not just because it was a close game, but because it was an SEC road win. That keeps us in position to play for something.

On losing the early lead…
Early leads in our game never last. They’re hard to hold in league play because teams are good. Yes, there are some things that I’ll look at on the tape and see that we have to clean up and address, but that’s the case after any game. The key for us is that we found a way to win. We’re not a perfect team, and we’re not going to be.