(Cherokee) fought hard. They made their run (in the fourth quarter), and they were right there. But we battled through.

We've got two more games to go through before we can start talking. Right now, we'll let our basketball do the talking for us.

I look at the team in all total aspects. We had four guys in double figures tonight, and if you're going to have two of them (over 20 points) with that, it's hard to beat.

We knew we had to come out and play hard. (North Cobb has) the ability to control the tempo. I do believe we could've done a better job, but our kids played hard, and we moved the ball around well.

I take my hat off to Pope. They competed and went down fighting. We did some good things, but there's plenty of room for improvement. We're not quite where I want to be yet.

It's always a good, clean rivalry. It's something we always look forward to.