University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Post-Game Quotesheet
2/21/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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POST-GAME QUOTESHEET
Pitt at Syracuse • Carrier Dome • Syracuse, N.Y. • February 21, 2015
Pitt 65, Syracuse 61
Quoting Pittsburgh Head Coach Jamie Dixon
Opening Statement:
"Great win and a very tough place to play with a really great team. Execution was key and I liked how we did it. We have been working on it for a few days now - attacking the zone and getting good shots. Twenty-one assists and 26 baskets - I thought our offense was really good with only the seven turnovers. On defense we changed it up and did different things and I thought they did a very good job, Fifteen offensive rebounds is what killed us and we need to do a better job at that. Obviously this is a tough place to play and I'm proud on how we did it. Chris Jones was terrific off the bench. I thought we had great performances off the bench from all of our guys considering the foul trouble that we had early and late throughout the game. The key was at the end of the first half we substituted some offense and defense which helped us, and getting the six-point lead was key."
General comment on Chris Jones's play?
"He is our best shooter. You need some guys to make some shots to get in the zone and we have confidence in him. Again, you look at the 21 assists and a lot of those come from the decisions that he made."
On what your goal was today?
"Come in to shoot and come in to score. I think we had some stretches there, and obviously with Cameron out and all the games he has missed we have had to change some things around. Our lineup has been in constant flux, but we are making the most of it."
Quoting Syracuse Head Coach Jim Boeheim
Opening statement:
"We got off to a bad start offensively. We missed some free throws early and we missed some layups early and we just couldn't get in a rhythm. Then we started to a little bit but we wanted to really focus our defense on (Chris) Jones. He really hurt us down there - we just let him have those open shots in the first half and enabled them to get control of the game. It's just a mistake we can't make defensively. I thought we played as hard as you could ask a team to play. It was a great battle back at the end. We made some great defensive plays. I thought we gave ourselves an opportunity to win the game. We shot 7-for-25 in the first half and 0-for-6 from the three, we just didn't make shots that first half. The second half we did play better offensively and we battled back but the first half was a really bad offensive performance and it put us in a bad spot."
What did you do to battle back there at the end?
"We got a good trap at half court; they threw it out of bounds and then we got another one and then (Michael) Young went to the basket and Rakeem (Christmas) made a good play on him and we got a couple, two or three is all it takes, and then we were very efficient on offense. We got down, we got the ball right to Rakeem, he scored and Tyler (Roberson) made a basket. Then we got B.J. (Johnson) a really good look at the three and he makes it. I thought both Ron (Patterson) and B.J. finally made some shots, which was why we were in the game. They haven't been doing that and that was big for those guys to make those shots. We trapped and mixed it up and they made a couple mistakes and we were able to convert."
Can you talk a little about B.J. Johnson?
"He's a good shooter; he's had good looks several times this year and I think he was 2-for-something for the year. The first shot he got he air balled it and then he got a good look and made them both and he makes the last one. He is a good shooter. The problem you have when he is in there is that he's small at the forward spot, hurts us on defense a little bit but we know he is a capable shooter. He just hasn't shot the ball well."
Rakeem Christmas was double-teamed early; did you do anything different in the second half to sort of get him going?
"We tried to move the ball a little better and not get (him the ball) right away where we could get them in different situations where they wouldn't be able to come right away. We moved the ball a little better, got it to him in better spots in the second half."
