Marcus Walton Quotations

The kids are starting to accept their roles. They came out defensive-minded first. Their defense dictated the rest of the ball game. They played as a whole and as one group. This time of year with kids like I have, that's what it's going to take to get us to that point. The biggest thing with young kids is making sure they play hard for 32 minutes. That's the key.

I give credit to Natchez. At that point in time, it was all guts and hustle. They really wanted it. Our kids kind of got lackadaisical, and Natchez turned it up and showed they wanted this game. They were getting into the passing lanes and playing aggressive defense.

They had opportunities to win. We would come in here, have a lead and lose a lead. Hopefully this is the one we need heading down the home stretch. Sometimes wins like this can turn a whole season around.

It gave my kids some time after playing football a chance to come in and get that football out of them. To get their legs back under them. It's a difference between game speed and practice speed. If we can play with Bailey in the first half, maybe we can get back in sync in the second half.

At that point in time it was just about stepping up, doing the little things, making free throws, giving them one shot at the basket and making them earn every shot they got. The kids really showed tonight that they have a lot of heart. To be down seven and go back up seven, that's a 14-point turnaround. For the kids to turn it up a notch and believe they can do it, they just had a belief in one another.