2017 PUERTO RICO TIP-OFF post-game quotes, Iowa State 75, Boise State 64

2017 PUERTO RICO TIP-OFF at Myrtle Beach – Post-game quotes, Iowa State 75, Boise State 76

IOWA STATE Coach Steve Prohm – “First thing is we want to thank Myrtle Beach for the hospitality and ESPN for a great tournament and all of our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Puerto, Rico where this tournament was supposed to be.

“We beat a really good team tonight. Hopefully (Chandler) Hutchison is better and it’s nothing major where he can get back right away for them. I know he’s a big part of their team.

“I’m proud of these guys, I’m proud of the way Donovan (Jackson) was able to finish the game. Seniors make big plays and he made big plays. I’m proud of Nick (Weiler-Babb) but collectively I’m proud of the growth we’ve made this week. We came down facing a lot of adversity, a lot of questions, and we took a step. Now they have to understand we have to go home and we have to coach them harder and they have to do better in all areas for us to continue to grow. The good teams in college basketball continue to get better from November to March. So great win and happy for our team.

“To their credit they made shots in the second half. Defensively we weren’t as good. I think both teams were a little fatigued but the pace for us in the second half wasn’t as good the last 10, 12 minutes. But the great thing about the last two nights is when we faced a little adversity and things got tough, these guys made plays. That will help us going forward.”

IOWA STATE guard Donovan Jackson – “This opportunity to come down here to Myrtle Beach was a humbling experience. It was a fresh new start for us just because we did start off 0-2 and I think everybody bought in to what Coach Prohm has to say and his philosophy and plays and all that and it’s a blessing to come out on top.

“I’ve got a great point guard in Nick Babb and he just tells me to make open shots and Coach Prohm keeps giving me confidence after confidence to keep shooting the ball so it was bound to fall. I was just reading the defense. I knew they were going to be jumping but I was just taking what the defense was giving me.”

IOWA STATE guard Nick Weiler-Babb – “The team played great, Coach Prohm had a great game plan and we executed it. Shout out to Boise State, they’re a heck of a team and there’s nothing but success in their future.

“I find it easier now to stay positive through the rough times. Being a leader now you get down on yourself when things go wrong but we don’t have any time for that. Me being the point guard, I need to keep everybody under wraps, I need to keep everybody happy and in a good mood. I learned a lot. Donovan’s out here shooting 9-for-15 and the last 13 points. I’ve always been pass first but when I have the opportunity I can score. I try to be as all-around as I can.”

(On Boise State’s rally): “We weren’t getting any stops. They scored probably five straight times on us and we just had to come together as a group and take it personal. It’s pride at that point. We knew we had to get stops to win the game, we couldn’t keep trading baskets.”

BOISE STATE Coach Leon Rice – “We had a choice. We could be victims and feel sorry for ourselves because we were down a soldier or we could step up and go compete and keep fighting them. We can make big runs and we knew we weren’t out of it if we wanted to fight. I knew they’d respond, they have character and toughness.

“They’re a good basketball team, explosive kind of like us. We were a little shell-shocked and trying to get our legs under us and figure things out when Chandler went down. That’s when they stretched things right away before we could regroup. We cut it to four and then it was anybody’s game. You’ve got to credit (Donovan) Jackson, he hit a big shot when they needed it most.

“They can score in bunches like us, I think we are kind of similar teams but you’ve got tocredit them, they answered when we had them a little on the ropes there.
“The team that I saw on film is not the team we saw tonight. Coach is doing a good job with them and they’re settled in and it takes time. Different teams take different amount of time to figure some stuff out and that’s what they had to do. They had some question marks of what they were going to do that and every team goes through that this time of year. Some teams are a little more advanced because they more guys back, more guys they know what they’re doing. Last year we had to do that a lot. We didn’t know who we were until January. I know they made a big step while they were down here.”

BOISE STATE forward Chris Sengfelder – “To be honest we’ll have to deal with it down the stretch probably during the season. Maybe he’s going to get in foul trouble or something like and we’ll have to play without him even though he’s such a tremendous part of our team. So we had to stick together, do what we do and compete as a team.

“We did a good job in the second half to play together as a team. We never stopped believing, even more when we got it down to four points. You’ve got to give credit to Iowa State, they played tremendous, they hit big shots. In the first half they came out and punched us in the face so we’ve got to give credit to them. Yeah, it hurts a little bit right now.

“We had a good game plan getting into them and I thought we did a good job preparing but they made big plays. They have big guys under the basket and they outrebounded us. They were huge on the glass and they made big plays and made the open shots more than we did.

“I think we take from it that we can compete at a high level. We beat two very good teams and lost to a very good team as well, which we had the chance to beat. So if we take that from it and that we are competitors and we don’t stick our head in the sand if things don’t go away, those are a couple of points we can take from it. We are not even close to being done, just growing and getting better.”