Jan. 22, 2003
January 22, 2003
Final Score: Georgia Tech 66 Elon 47
Georgia Tech Head Coach Paul Hewitt
“It was nice to see us bounce back and play a little better offensively in the second half. Mark’s team deserves a lot of credit for how they controlled the tempo in the first half. They were able to run the shot clock down. I thought our effort was pretty decent, but toward the end of the shot clock we had a couple of breakdowns. We allowed them to rn the shot clock down and score, which kept them in the game. They certainly had a lot of emotion in that first half, and they deserve a lot of credit for taking care of the basketball the way they did. In the second half, I thought our energy picked up but more than anything else our offense picked up and we started to make some shots. I’m not sure the last time I looked at a stat sheet at halftime and saw B.J. and Marvin scoreless, and that had a lot to do with out struggles in the first half, along with their play and their preparation. In the second half we started to drop some shots and maybe they wore down a little bit.
[Mood at halftime?] “Obviously I was disappointed. I felt like we could have done a better job offensively. I don’t think there’s any point in getting angry. They were disappointed as well. They know. We just went over a couple of things. More than anything else, they had to just challenge each other, which they did.
[On Ed Nelson] “He’s playing much better. It’s reminiscent of last year when he really closed strong to win the Rookie of the Year. I hope we’re starting to see the real Ed Nelson.
Elon Head Coach Mark Simons
“I was pleased with the way our kids responded. I thought they did a great job of competing and making plays. We did have 14 turnovers at half-time and every time we would make a play, we wouldn’t make a play and it seemed like it was either feast or famine. We’d either get a great look or throw it into the stands. But, again, I felt like our kids competed and I felt like they competed very well in the second half. It got down to them taking away one of the things we were having success with, and that was ball screens. They started trapping those and taking those away from us and did a nice job of making that adjustment, and we didn’t. We were stepping our post out and trying to let them make plays and that just wasn’t going to happen.”
“We did a good job of handling the pressure in the first half, but it wore us out in the second half. Our guards got tired and that’s where Steve started turning the ball over when he got tired. The pressure just really wore us down and it showed. It wasn’t like we were giving up, but after awhile, it just wears on you. In the second half, we weren’t able to get into our offense quite as easily, which forced us to enter it a little higher, which forced us to put it on the floor and just didn’t get the same looks that we did in the first half.”
“It became a very physical game and I didn’t think we responded very well early. But, then I felt like we adjusted at about the 15 minute mark in the second half, but they had already taken a lead and I thought we did a much better job on the defensive end as far as matching their physical play. We turned the ball over which led to some dunks, but again, I was pleased with our effort and felt like our kids competed all day and made a step forward.”
