It all comes down to defense. We've got to defend their 3s, body out and rebound. This is what we've been looking forward to since that Friday night at West Rowan. This is our chance.

We were getting good shots, and everybody was making shots. But what we needed were more rebounds and more defense.

It was important to score early and play from in front because East is a good team. But defense was more important than offense tonight. Offense sells tickets; defense wins games.

That guy led his team, and he scored. But it wasn't like he was the best thing I've ever seen or anything. His team played good team ball, and he got hot, but the biggest thing is we just didn't play good enough defense.

It was a big game for us as far as staying on top of the NPC and as far as getting them back for earlier this year and for a lot of years. We just played it out for 32 minutes. Coach (Mike) Gurley liked it. He was pretty warm tonight.

We got in our rhythm and kept it going. It was about taking our time, going to the rack, shooting open shots, taking what they gave us.