“It feels really good to get a win tonight against St. Pete,” said head coach Tom Parks. "I just feel like St. Pete is one of those teams that can prepare you for a toughness test. They are very tough and very scrappy and never stop playing. If you can blow it open late in the second half, it speaks volumes to our guys. St. Pete doesn't let people get those kind of large leads and obviously going against coach (Earnest) Crumbley, someone who I have a ton of respect for and look up to as a coach and human being who process-oriented in doing things the right way, it means a lot."
"Overall I feel like we always talk about we're going against ourselves. We had a lot of issues lately trying to score the ball against man and zone defense, in which SPC showed a little bit of both and I thought we did a good job. We started off slow and that's what we have been doing a lot offensively, which was fairly new and so it was nice to take after those first six to figure it out and score more baskets to where we can reach the high 80s, 90s and hopefully break 100s in those games as long we be a little bit more in attack mode offensively."
“It felt pretty good to get the sweep over SPC tonight, especially against a great hall of fame coach,” said sophomore James ‘Pop’ Weathers. "We knew the type of players he was going to put on the court and had it all figured out. We came out a little slow in the first half and we called timeout so we can talk about what we needed to do to pick up the pace. Once the second half started, we hit 52 points and played pretty well."
“I feel like we were supposed to beat them earlier and it was a hard fought game,” said sophomore Kwo Agwa. "We executed to the end and it was good that we got the win. We did have a few hiccups, but we got the job done and that was a pretty good win at the end of the day."
“It felt great, especially going into Saturday's game against Santa Fe for revenge,’ said freshman Cobey Harraway. "We can just tell that we have improved compared to the first game against St. Pete as it was really close. Tonight, we took the lead, ran with it in the second half and kept our foot on their neck and didn't let up, so it felt good to get the win."
"Overall, we started off slow in 10 minutes of the first half, but we started to pick it up and scored 16 points in five minutes and really got it going and the momentum took us into the second half."
The first half was a slow start for the Manatees as they were not shooting the ball as much, but then 16-point run in five minutes helped the team regain their confidence on the floor and pushed their lead up. The Manatees were able to take the first half 36-26.
The second half proved to be the dagger as strong rebounding and putbacks by Agwa, two big 3-pointers by Harraway and freshman Jacari White and dunks by Weathers and freshman Ametri Moss gave the Manatees a big boost in offense as they sealed the deal for the win.
Five Manatees scored in double figures for the game, and it was Agwa that lead the way as he finished with his first double-double of the season as the Calgary native, who made his way back to the starting lineup, had a career-high 23 points (8-for-10 FG, 7-for-7 FT), 10 rebounds (five offensive), one steal and a career-high five blocks.
“I just feel like when I play with more energy, the results speak for themself,” said Agwa on his game. "When the points, rebounds and blocks come when I play hard, I never lose focus on it."
“Statistically, Kwo had a good year as a freshman, but he is capable of so much more,” said Parks on Agwa. "The biggest difference between this year's team and last year's team is we didn't have somebody to hold him accountable, so if he played bad or good, then he still played. When he played good, he helped us win and when he played bad, other guys stepped up even though we still had him on the floor and this year, with our depth, we were able to put Kwo on the bench and that was a big learning moment for him to understand that it didn't matter how he did last year, it was more he had to be consistent this year. While he did not have a ton of opportunities early in the season, when the guy in front of you is doing their job, it's hard to find extra minutes. Overall, I thought he did a good accepting the challenge of playing in a different position around the basket with the departure of Djordje (Gobovic) and I'm just really happy for Kwo because he's someone that can really impact the game in many and I'm happy he took advantage of the opportunity in a new role today."
Weathers would follow Agwa with 20 points (6-for-18 FG, 8-for-10 FT), five rebounds, four assists and three steals, while White finished with 14 points (5-for-11 FG, 2-for-5 3PT, 2-for-2 FT), five rebounds, one assist and one steal.
“I could have shot the ball better,” said Weathers on his game. "Yet at the end of the day, it's still a team win. I found ways to get my teammates involved as well as myself, so with those two elements working together, it helped us get this win."
Harraway finished with 13 points (4-for-7 FG, 2-for-3 3PT, 3-for-4 FT), four rebounds, one assist and three steals, while Moss, who was one rebound shy of a double-double, rounded out the order with 10 points (3-for-10 FG, 4-for-4 FT), nine rebounds, four assists and two blocks.
“It was for sure tough in the first half for me,” said Harraway on his game. "Obviously, I wanted to be good individually, but when the team is up 10 points going into the second half the team always comes first. Obviously, I was held to one point in the first half, which is unlike me, but I told myself in the locker room in my head 'you're good, you're not acting like yourself' and during the second half, I pushed myself to wake up to do what I needed to do to get my offense going."
Sophomores Clarence Cummings III (five points, eight rebounds, five assists and four steals) and Darik Tannis-Harriet (one point) and freshmen Ronnail Tape (two points, two rebounds, two blocks and a steal), Sam Faraday (three rebounds) and Pierre-Gabriel Gouffran (one rebound) also contributed in the game.
Notes:
Weathers’ 20 points put him at 654 and needs 346 to reach 1,000 career points.
Up Next:
The Manatees remain at home as they welcome #18 Santa Fe (10-1) to Hal Chasey Gymnasium Saturday afternoon, December 11 at 2 pm.
No comments:
Post a Comment