Jan. 18, 2014
Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery 
January 18, 2014
Bowling Green, Ky. (E.A. Diddle Arena)
HEAD COACH Ray Harper
On team responding tonight from Thursday's loss:
"It's always nice to pull one out. You have to give these kids a lot of credit. They were persistent. We had opportunities to finish it earlier, but I guess they didn't have anything to do on a Saturday night so they wanted to stay and play a little longer."
On George Fant's night:
"We felt it. We talked about it a lot. `Feed the big fellow and let him eat.' Other than the couple of turnovers early, he was terrific. He made all the right decisions with the basketball late. He looked like the George Fant when he is on top of his game today. He had 27 (points) and 14 (rebounds). He battled. His free throws late, he got fatigued."
On holding Arkansas State to 6-24 shooting from the three:
"I thought we were pretty locked in tonight. We fouled a little late on some drives. We've got to continue to fight drives. For the most part, I thought we were good. We stuck to scouting reports tonight, details. That's how you win games like this. You've got to pay attention to detail. You must execute in late game situations. I thought we missed George (Fant) in the post. That's where the play was going in regulation. It happens. This game could've gone either way. The persistence these young mean showed today, I think it shows a lot about them after a tough loss on Thursday. There are a lot of teams that maybe couldn't have bounced back like they did today."
On tonight being a "must win":
"I don't ever think it's a must win game. I just told them I think this could be a defining moment in your season. `Who are you?' Sometimes when you're winning, everything's good. Who are you and what are you about when things aren't going well? You're never as good as people tell you you are when you're winning, and you're never as good as they tell you you are when you're losing. It's about grinding. It's about working. It's about getting better. Teams that continue to do that over the course of a season will continue to get better. It's why we played in the last two NCAA tournaments, because they believed and they worked. Will we do it again? I don't know, but I'll tell you the two things we'll continue to do; we'll continue to grind, we'll continue to work every day. If it's meant to be, it'll be meant to be, but we'll never take shortcuts. We're all about hard work here. Was Thursday's loss tough? Absolutely. We may have another tough one before the seasons over. I bet you we don't quit. I bet you we keep fighting. If my teams do that, the teams I'm associated with, I'll be proud one way or another. I'm not going to let a scoreboard define who my teams are. What I tell them is don't worry about the wins and losses, worry about the process. Worry about playing hard. Worry about competing. Do that and you'll be successful not only here, but long after you leave here. That's what college basketball is all about."
JUNIOR FORWARD George Fant
On his big night:
"I think I had two bad nights, back to back the last two games. I didn't get too panicked. I didn't get too upset, I knew, at some point, it was going to come back to me. I got in the gym and did a little more work, and it helped today."
On the importance of tonight's game:
"It means a lot. We needed this game to show everyone we're still in it. We've got to go on the road and hopefully get two more games."
On joining the 1,000-point club tonight:
"It's a very exciting thing. I forgot all about it, and during the game I wasn't paying attention. Someone in the huddle said something to me. I'm glad to join T.J. (Price) in the 1,000 point club. It's a good feeling."
On having two overtime games this week:
"I'm a little tired, if you can tell from my free throws."
JUNIOR GUARD T.J. Price
On the perimeter defense against Arkansas State:
"That's what we take pride in. The offense is going to come to us no matter what, but our pride is in the defense. That's what we work on mainly in practice. We came in and we played the best defense we can."
On if tonight was a must win for the Hilltoppers:
"It was definitely a must win. Our plans are to be the conference champions. The main thing to do that is to win all of our home games. We've already dropped two and we couldn't lose three in a row at home. We had a good crowd, I want to thank them for coming out and supporting us. We had to win for our fans, our team, and the conference period, to reach our goal."
