Dec. 30, 2013

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South Carolina Head Coach Frank Martin
Opening Statement
I’m happy for the kids. I was worried about this match-up today because of what you saw. They are extremely athletic and they attack you. I was worried about getting in foul trouble and kind of as the game played out, that’s what happened. A lot of credit, even the guys who were there at the end of the first half as they took the lead. We didn’t wilt. Earlier in the year we’ve wilted. They stayed the course; we made some plays and at least we took the lead into the locker room. And then at halftime what we talked about was whether it’s good, bad, or indifferent who cares – it’s over. We got a lead; figure out a way to win the second half and that means we win another game. Keep your focus on that. Our perimeter defense was great. Even our bigs’ ball screen defense – might be the best ball screen defense I’ve coached in my six years as a head coach. But we reach too much and we stood up too much. When you stand up and reach against a team that attacks you, you end up with a lot of fouls. And that’s our one mistake today.

Freshman Forward Demetrius Henry
On limited playing time due to fouls…
I just have to learn to stop making silly fouls. Sometimes you just have to let some things go. I’m making silly fouls that I would make in high school. Kind of like the same mistakes I made as a freshman in high school. I just have to learn to let some things go.

Freshman Guard Duane Notice
On his confidence level after the tournament in Hawaii…
The guys have been on me. I have great teammates; I call them my brothers. The coaches have been on me and Coach Martin has always challenged me every day. The first day we got to Hawaii we had our practice and [Coach Martin] challenged me in front of everyone and that kind of gave me a spark. That enabled me to get on this run that I’m going on. I don’t want to get too high or too low. I don’t want to be complacent. I just want to keep my head forward and strive in the best direction to help the team out.

Senior Guard Brenton Williams
On getting an early second foul but playing in control in the second half…
Picking up that second foul early was frustrating. The coaches told me to keep my head in the game and be ready for the second half. I knew once I picked up that second one around the 11-minute mark in the first half I knew I wasn’t going to get back in. But I kept my head on straight and got back in the second half and continued what I did in the first half.

Marshall Head Coach Tom Herrion
On the size and physicality of South Carolina…
Well we talked about that all week and unfortunately we didn’t get it done. Their physicality wore us down I think and they dominated the glass, which I knew was an area that we had to be close with and we didn’t do near a good enough job on the glass. We got to the line 46 times which is a great number, but we left too many points at the line especially when we were trying to come back in the second half from that little deficit. It was just a frustrating night for us.

On getting to the free throw line…
That’s what we have to do; we have to get to the line and 46 free throw attempts on the road is an outstanding job offensively even as poor as we shot and executed. But our defense is what let us down and our rebounding was not very good tonight.