We want them to get caught up in it. It's something they'll never be able to do again, for the seniors. We'll get after them in practice and go hard like we have all year, but we also want them to appreciate what they're doing.
Those kids have had three coaches in four years. To stick with it and grind it out and make it here their senior year is just incredible.
I told the kids, 'If we're not making shots, do things you can control,' which are rebounding, taking care of the ball and playing defense. We hung in there until we got clicking.
We started 0-5 because of that. We got down big at the J&C Hoops Classic every game. We have been preaching that. I thought before the game we'd have an advantage at the guard spot and it seemed to hold true.
I couldn't be more proud. That's the sixth-ranked team in the state and we beat them on a neutral court. That is huge.
I'm nothing but proud of our kids. Nobody gave us a chance. I'm sure everyone thought it was going to be a 35-40-point game. There are no moral victories; I just feel good about how we played and the effort we gave. We've made a lot of strides.
On the year we were about 56 percent from the line. Today we shot 80 percent in the second half and 76 percent for the game.
The key today was our free-throw shooting. A lot of that has to do with having seniors stepping up and hitting them.
Every game in this tournament we have had a different leading scorer. Anybody who has followed us all year knows we do not have a superstar.
You've got to put a coaching staff together that's responsible and can do things for you, because you can't do it yourself. And then you've also got to have talented kids, which we do. So we've got the combination that you need to get here. It's not me, it's not one person.
