Johnny May Quotations

Getting to the state tournament has always been tough. Being there for the third year in a row is a testament to our kids in the program -- they've all worked hard to get there.

We dug ourselves a hole again, but started hitting some shots and playing defense and got ourselves within three points. Hope's just a very talented team.

We just didn't defend tonight. We had to fight ... to get back in it once they got a lead, and we played like we were tired.

We didn't have a true leader in the sense of the term.

We talk a lot about composure. We didn't panic and that makes a big difference in these kind of games.

We changed our schedule some this year, played northern schools during the regular season. It helped a lot ... playing those schools we wouldn't normally see until the state tournament.

The third was a bad quarter for us. We dug ourselves a hole. We cut it to three and that's how we play. We made runs and they made runs. Theirs were just a little bigger than ours.

That's part of the game. You give yourself enough chances, one of these days we'll get one.

They changed their defenses in the last quarter and we got a little out of sync. Williams' breakaway basket and Will's free throws saved us.

The turning point was that stretch in the final quarter where they had those three put-backs. We got a little tired and could never get back any momentum after that.

After they beat us in the regional championship, we wanted one more chance to play them. We knew the opportunity was there for us, we needed to take advantage of it.

In order to climb out of a hole, you've got to defend first. We had to get stops and we adjusted our press and started bothering them some.