Postgame Quotes

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VIRGINIA BASKETBALL
Postgame Quotes
Virginia 72, Drexel 58

Virginia Head Coach Dave Leitao

“I have a terrific amount of respect for (Drexel head coach) Bruiser Flint and his program. When we scheduled this game as part of the Philly Classic, we knew we would be tested, particularly coming off a cross-country trip and winning an exciting game. I feared there would be a natural let-down that could cost us the game like others around the country this year. I felt we suffered through that in the first half, but we concentrated and followed through on the game plan.”

“We had a couple of good stretches and were able to extend the lead, then we had enough cushion to stem the tide. We obviously have to get in the gym and continue to get better, but we got some good contributions tonight. Mike Scott played well off the bench and Sammy (Zeglinski) came out in the second half and made some good passes, handled the ball well and gave us an extra set of eyes.”

On the Philly Classic:
“There are so many of these types of tournaments popping up, where you get home games. It’s the new trend and something we wanted to do, and it gets guys like Sean (Singletary) to Philly so they will have the chance to see what we do here. In that regard, I think it works well and I’m looking forward to going there.”

On Sean Singletary:
“He’s trying to get comfortable within himself and with the guys around him. There are times when he sees an opening and then it closes. He will work to get better as we move forward.”

On the Cavaliers’ rebounding advantage:
“We thought that we could, by virtue of our size, have an advantage on the boards. I set 20 as our goal on the offensive backboards. We didn’t quite get there and we got more defensive rebounds because we played good defense.”

On Drexel’s Frank Elegar:
“I can see why he is one of the top players in the CAA. He is a good player who will have a great year.”

Senior forward Adrian Joseph

On the game overall:
“We came out of a slump at the beginning and made them play a game. I think it all started before the game started. The lay-up line just wasn’t ready to go. It showed in the first half. We can’t have those lapses because in the future, those lapses could cost us the game.”

On his career-high rebounds:
“Tonight, my defense, especially rebounding, helped me a lot. Basically, we try to play hard-nosed defense every game. We just try to stop other teams and we tried to do that tonight and everything went our way.”

On Sean Singletary:
“No matter what, on his off games, he plays so hard out there that things are going to go his way, regardless. I look forward to playing games with him, even on his off nights.”

On Calvin Baker:
“He’s played at the college level before, so I think he knows what it takes to play here, and he’s been doing that lately. He’s been doing a great job.”

Senior guard Sean Singletary

On the game overall:
“This was probably the first sign of adversity we’ve had all year. We just had a big win over Arizona, so naturally you have the tendency to let your guard down a little bit. We played hard, but we didn’t really have the noise of the crowd, so we had to feed off our own energy. I think it was a good test for us. I think we struggled in the beginning, but we definitely got our energy back up and just turned it around. But it’s difficult just to blow a team out like that after you’ve struggled in the beginning and come out so flat.”

On the playing in Philadelphia:
“I’m pretty excited, I haven’t been home to play in awhile, so it would be good to get home and see my family and play in the Palestra. I played there about three or four times in high school.”

On the team:
“I played major minutes, and last year J.R. (Reynolds) would bring the ball up a little bit when I was out. But this is a good test for them because this is a good defensive team. They’re very talented but they’re also very aggressive, so it’s a good test for them to try to handle the point and get some pressure. And they did a very good job of it.”

Drexel Coach Bruiser Flint

On holding Virginia scoreless until its 10th trip down the floor:
“I thought the first 25 minutes of the game we did what we wanted to do which was make them take tough shots. This is a good shooting team and if you make those guys take tough shots on top of you, then you have a chance of staying in the game. Our problem was, in the heat of the game, we let them get too many wide-open looks. We miss a foul shot, they rebound it, throw it out to a guy, and knock down a three. We come down, we don’t match that on transition; they hit a guy and knock down a three. They make two foul shots; we miss one. So in the heat of the game when it was kind of close, they made plays, we made some mistakes, and every time we made a mistake, they took advantage of it.”

On Sean Singletary initially having an off night and ultimately scoring 24 points:
“He shot a lot of foul shots in the second half, and we did a poor job. We wanted him to make plays going to his left, which I thought we did a pretty good job of then we started to break down. He’s a good player, and he started getting to his spots. Then again, when he goes that way, he makes the other guys that much better because they shoot open shots and when those guys shoot open shots, they’re pretty good. Those guys knock down open ones, they really do.”

On Drexel’s defense:
“They shot 50 percent from the three point line and that’s where the majority of their shots are going to come from. In the heat of the game, I want to say it went from like five to maybe 12 or 15 just because they made two or three threes, made a couple of foul shots, and then all of the sudden it was tough for us to get back into the game. Other than that, we had some pretty good looks, and we didn’t knock them down. We went to the line, we didn’t make it; we’d go one for two. You can’t do that on the road against a good team; you really can’t, and they took advantage of it. Dave (Leitao) does an unbelievable job with them; their guys play hard. We knew we had to come in and do some pretty good things to make a game of it. Like I said, I thought in the heat of the game we made some bad mistakes and those guys took advantage of it, no question.”

On Drexel’s rebounding:
“One of the things is that when you shoot a lot of three point shots, it’s a lot of long rebounds. Our guards didn’t do a good job with that. Not only that, but every time Frank (Elegar) caught the ball, he had four guys around him. The way they play, you are so spread out, it’s sort of one on one. So (Ryan) Pettinella and (Laurynas) Mikalauskas, they did a good job on one on one rebounding. That was their job; keep him off the glass, don’t let him get offensive or defensive rebounds. They did a pretty good job of that. I thought we did a poor job at times of rebounding their long rebounds.”

Senior Center Frank Elegar

On facing many different Virginia defenders throughout the game:
“Tough task, but we worked on it in practice, and we’ve been preparing all year. Everybody’s going to do it, I’ve just got to be ready for it.”

On going into the second half after being up most of the first half:
“We know that we can play everybody that is on our schedule but we had some mental lapses and they just capitalized on them.”

On how Drexel plays defense:
“We’ve just got to make sure we keep guys in front, which we did a poor job of today, and playing the screen on the ball.”

On the wide margin of Virginia to Drexel rebounds:
“It was huge. Guys were getting rebounds through free throws, a lot of hustle plays, kicking to guys on the perimeter, and they were making a lot of three point shots.”

On the play of Drexel’s guards Tramayne Hawthorne and Gerald Colds:
“They got what they wanted pretty much. Guys collapsing on me, I tried to get them the ball when they’re open; it just wasn’t going for them today.”