Thursday’s Myrtle Beach Invitational Quotes – Coastal Carolina 79, Utah 57

Coastal Carolina 79, Utah 57

Coastal Carolina coach Cliff Ellis – “We really were into the game. Our guys put their heart and soul into it energy-wise. From a defensive perspective I thought we played excellent in so many ways and on the offensive side of the ball we made some plays. These guys here (Ebrima Dibba and DeVante Jones), you’ve got to give them a lot of credit for what happened. I really applaud Ebo; in the first half DJ gets his second foul and our bench comes in and does some things and we were able to have a lead going into the second half. Our entire contributed and you have to have that. It was one of those games that was a statement win for us. At the same point in time we know we’ve got 80 more minutes of basketball. The big test now is we have to put this one behind. At some point we’ll enjoy it but we’ve got Baylor tomorrow.”

Coastal Carolina guard DeVante Jones – “This win means a lot. Coach Ellis was preaching about it the whole, just telling us to be focused, be ready to play. We came out ready. I had some fouls and the bench came in and they played well and Ebo played well. He showed great leadership talking to the guys, keeping them uplifted. As for Keishawn (Brewton), we know what he can do. He’s a 3-point shooter and can also make plays off the bounce and he did that tonight. This is the beginning for us.”

Coastal Carolina guard Ebrima Dibba – “As a team we uplift each other. My teammates came out with a lot of confidence. I played good the first half but I think it was a team effort. The team has helped me get open shots and Coach drew up some good plays.”

Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak – “It was kind of variety of things. In the first half I thought we earned some pretty good shots, they didn’t go in. It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that, you’ve got to make open shots. We got outscrapped. In the first half, a number of offensive rebounds, the play right before halftime was pretty illuminating in my mind where the ball’s bouncing around, we don’t get the possession, they hit a 3, go up six. It’s a big difference. You’ve got to play hard, smart and together to win most games and we didn’t play hard enough in the first and then we didn’t play smart enough or together enough in the second half.” (On the team’s experience): “That’s going to be a common question all year long. The only way you get experience is time. The only way you heal when you’re mourning over somebody’s death is time. You can’t speed it up, you’ve got to live it and you go through and you chalk, and your team hopefully grows if they’re made of the right stuff.”