We feel like those [close] games have prepared us for our area tournament. We've been in several close games and recently we've been able to keep our composure and earn a victory.

I wish we could have played all four quarters like that. We've been relying on our defense to get us going by creating turnovers. We didn't do a good job of that to start with, but in the last part of the third quarter and the fourth we really clamped down and were able to take control of the game.

The difference between the two games for us was that the first game was early in the season and we had two new starters and a lot of inexperienced players off the bench. By the time we played them the second time we had established our roles and everyone knew what was expected of them.

We were really rushing, I felt like, early in the ball game. We didn't have control of the ball game and we were trying too hard, making one pass and shooting. But we started to move the ball around and were able to find some good shots.

We had great energy tonight, on both ends. We worked really, really hard to limit them to one shot and take away what they wanted to do. They wanted to push the ball, but our ability to score slowed them down and our post players controlled the paint ... It was a total team effort. I'm so proud of them.

Anytime you hold a team to seven second-half points, you've got to be pretty happy as a coach. When we fell behind in the first quarter, we had to go back to what wins ball games for us, and that's our defense.