March 4, 2005

2005 West Coast Conference Men's Basketball Tournament Santa Clara University - Leavey Center March 4, 2005

Pepperdine - Loyola Marymount First Round Quotes

Pepperdine Quotes

Pepperdine Coach Paul Westphal:
Re: second half:
I give our players a lot of credit; they came out and made the effort adjustment that was necessary. Things fell out way and we had some great performances, especially by our true freshmen here - and McGowan wasn't bad either.

Glen McGowan:
We knew we had to come out in the second half and play aggressively. It seems like everyone was flat in the first half.

Russell Hicks:
Definitely halftime was a wake-up call for all of us. We just had us a new team in the second and we played very well. I woke up in the second half. I don't know what happened in the first half. I was in a daze or something.

Paul Westphal:
We played a different defense that was nothing the way we played in the first half. In the second half we came out and we just gave 20 minutes of extreme effort. And that was the difference. There was no major adjustments it was just you guys are better than that and you have 20 minutes to show it and they responded.

McGowan:
The first five minutes were the most important part of the second half.

Paul Westphal on facing San Diego tomorrow:
We split with them - had a tough game at their place. We have a lot of respect for them. They really shoot the ball well and have great size.

Loyola Marymount Quotes

Coach Steve Aggers:
We played as well in the first half as we've played since Christmas. We controlled the tempo of the game and had a nice lead at halftime. In the second half Pepperdine deserves a great deal of credit. Their offense really spurted on us. They really hurt us inside with McGowan and Diawara. They're very physical. We had a hard time controlling Acker's penetration in the second half. The other two guys who almost go unnoticed who don't get enough credit are their two freshmen. I thought Hicks and Costain played great in the second half.

It's disappointing for our team. We've been traditionally a good defensive team and to give up 57 second half points is pretty discouraging. They started getting the momentum and once they got the momentum we couldn't stop their momentum.We tried to change defenses a couple of times. Everything they did worked out perfectly. They attacked much more aggressively in the second half.

Matthew Knight:
(Regarding the second half):
We just didn't come out to play. Once they got the momentum, we just couldn't stop them. We talked about it the last few weeks...It's a 40 minute game, it's not a 20 minute game.