Lorenzo Romar says sluggish first half cost Huskies in 81-80 loss at Colorado
Here’s everything Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar said after Washington’s 81-80 loss at Colorado on Saturday afternoon.
(Opening) “Give Colorado a lot of credit. This weekend, they survived huge adversity. Josh (Scott) being out, Tre’Shaun Fletcher wasn’t 100 percent, (Dominique) Collier fouling out (Thursday) night. They did a great job of finding a way to get it done. Wesley Gordon stepped up in Josh Scott’s absence and I thought had a big-time game and really hurt us. Give them a lot of credit.”
(Do you focus more on what went wrong in the first or the comeback in the second?) “Without question – I’m usually a glass-half-full guy – but the first half killed us. We did not put forth the type of effort in the first half that we did the second half, and you just can’t do that with so much at stake. We were just a step slow on everything we did in the first half. We didn’t play smart offensively, and Colorado took advantage of it.”
(On the final few possessions) “I thought we got great looks at the basket. Dejounte Murray got four feet from the rim and the ball trickled off. We did turn the ball over once in there, but Colorado wasn’t able to convert. And then the same shot Andrew missed is the same exact shot he hit here last year in this building. It was the same exact shot. A stepback, and the ball didn’t go down. So I thought we got good looks in the last few possessions, except for the one turnover.”
(On allowing so many offensive rebounds) “A lot of it had to do with Wesley Gordon. Just attacked us. He was relentless, and we missed a lot of shots, and we didn’t do a good job of offensive rebounding. So if you don’t do that and you miss a lot of shots, they’re going to get a whole lot of defensive rebounds. But the offensive rebounds by him were the ones that really hurt us.”
(On the desperation pass that went out of bounds) “We had Marquese set up down the floor about at the foul line. Thought he was in great position. We threw it a little too high. That’s a difficult pass to throw. It’s a desperation play, and Marquese is a very good leaper, but he couldn’t even get up there and get it.”
(On figuring out what happened in the first half) “I know exactly what happened. Why it happened is the issue. We were a step slow, and took bad shots, and rushed things offensively. We were at times lethargic. It was like we were running in mud. Well, you’d think the altitude – if it was the altitude, we couldn’t have done it in the second half. We couldn’t have found a way to do it in the second half. So no, it was not the altitude.”
(On whether players were thinking too much about Josh Scott not playing for Colorado) “I don’t think so. I don’t think at this point we can afford to think of any reason why we can’t play as hard as we can play. Any reason. For whatever reason, we didn’t do it.”
(On this loss putting UW’s backs against the wall) “If we’re talking NCAA tournament, yes. We’ve got to finish strong right now. We don’t have a lot of margin for error at this point.”
(Tougher loss because of the comeback?) “… It’s a tougher loss because we didn’t bring it the way we should have in the first half. If you do that, now the game goes down to the last shot or two, you put yourself in that position, you have to come up with something heroic to win the game. You would hope it would have been a different story if we would have played different in the first half.”
(Your view of the technical foul against Colorado?) “I didn’t see it at all. I was looking at our players, I was watching what was going on. I didn’t see it.”
(On the difference between going 5-1 to start Pac-12 play and 2-5 since) “We were playing better defense then. And in this stretch we haven’t played as good of defense. You take away the second half at Arizona State, which we won, and the Arizona game, which we came up short. So our defense isn’t at the level it was before. I thought in the second half tonight, it was better.”
(On Marquese Chriss’ game) “Marquese I thought was a warrior. I didn’t think that he loafed at all. I thought he played extremely hard. I thought Matisse Thybulle put forth a great effort, also.”
(Feel like deja vu at all from last year?) “No. … (Last year) We got to a point where we had lost so many games, we were just surviving to have the best seed in the Pac-12 tournament. We still are very much in contention for an NCAA berth. That wasn’t the case last year, at this point in the season. It wasn’t the case. Right now, we are in contention to get to the NCAA tournament. So I know our guys are aware of that. We’re going home. And I know we have not won every home game, but we’ve got to strap it on.”
This story was originally published February 13, 2016 at 2:14 PM with the headline "Lorenzo Romar says sluggish first half cost Huskies in 81-80 loss at Colorado."