Postgame Quotes

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Virginia Head Coach Tony Bennett

On pride in the effort shown by the team:
“It was good. We had some guys really battle. I thought our defense showed up in the second half. In the first half, it wasn’t really solid. Their effort was there, but the execution wasn’t. They really made Georgia Tech earn; it was physical with the post players. That’s a good team and we outlasted them, which I was proud of: seeing Jerome [Meyinsse] bang, Mike [Scott] and guys getting on the floor. We said before the game, at home it’s a must: you have to win the ‘x-factor’, you have to win the hustle game. Guys did that and we got a good lift from our bench and took care of the ball and made our free throws. Those are good things.”

On out-rebounding Georgia Tech:
“Early in the game it didn’t look like it was going to be that way. They scored quite a few points. Some of their guards got in and we didn’t check them off. [We got] some fortunate bounces, but some tough, hard boxing-out and guys going after it with a reckless abandon. That’s what we needed. Sylven [Landesberg] rebounded hard, Assane [Sene] got some offensive rebounds. It was a good night on the boards. “

On playing the game at a faster pace:
“They didn’t press every possession, but if our guards can get a rebound, we really want to go because there are opportunities to score in transition. I thought there were a couple of times that we took ill-advised shots that maybe hurt us cause they wanted to get going. You have to be able to have a balance when opportunities are there and you make good decisions, absolutely, go – just make good decisions on the end of it. I thought for the most part we did. I thought in the first half we missed some easy baskets. I said, ‘Your offense is okay, even if you’re a little stagnant at times, but you have to win it with your defense in the second half.’ I think we did and I was happy to see them step it up and compete and execute on the defensive end.”

On Meyinsse’s missed free throw converted to a three-pointer by Sammy Zeglinski:
“It was big – we had some fortunate bounces, certainly, but that was eating some time off the clock and that’s devastating when you’re a team and you’re a little bit down and miss a free throw, miss the free throw rebound, we run the clock down, and we were a little stagnant, but Sammy hit a huge shot which put us up nine. That was what we needed – momentum. Then you saw them bang some threes late so we needed that cushion, but that was crucial. You need those defining moments in a game.“

On the assertiveness of Mustapha Farrakhan and Jeff Jones:
“I told them before the game, ‘you guys are upperclassmen and you’ve played ACC games with the exception of Jontel [Evans] and Tristan [Spurlock]. You have to feed off the energy, but bring some toughness.’ I thought they were locked in. Mustapha is an emotional player and when he gets control of those emotions and uses them the right way, he is effective cause he can slide and he can guard. Jeff is a weapon with his shot. I was glad to see those guys give us a great lift and good minutes. Again, I like it when Jeff is hunting shots, moving off of screens hard and drawing attention. Then Mustapha has the ability to put it on the floor; sometimes against that pressure you have to bounce it and I thought he did that at times.”

Georgia Tech Head Coach Paul Hewitt

On how effective Virginia’s second-half defense was:
“I thought we started to rush some shots. We want to play in transition, but we took some three-point shots that came out long. In the first half I thought we did a great job of executing and getting shots inside. We had some shots on good looks and we just didn’t knock them down. I am not going to second-guess our guys, but if you miss threes it usually creates a long rebound situation. I thought we got good looks, but they did a great job of keeping us off the boards in the second half. We had a run there going when Zack (Peacock) was making some good moves and making some tough shots near the paint. Got to give Virginia credit, they did what they had to do at the end of the game to win.”

On how tough he thought the game would be despite Virginia’s preseason ACC media pick of No. 11 in the league:
“Very tough – Virginia has a guy in (Sylven) Landesberg that demands a lot of attention. He can lift the entire team when he is playing well. He didn’t shoot the ball well tonight, but he brings so much attention to him your defense has to pay so much attention that it opens things up for other guys. Got to give them credit because when they had open shots they knocked them down. I thought they did a good job of running the offense through baseline screens and knocking down shots.”

On key turnovers:
“I think it was an eye-opener for our young wing guys (Brian Oliver and Glen Rice) on how we need to protect the ball when they get up on you in this league. We still have enough veteran guys that we could have done a better job, but you have to give credit to Virginia on doing what needed to be done to win.”

On if this was a trap game coming off an upset victory over No. 5 Duke and looking to face North Carolina in next contest:
“No. We knew that this was a tough game just like everyone is in this league. We were not overlooking Virginia, we focused solely on the Cavaliers.”