Once again, Huskies ‘weren’t able to get over the hump,’ this time in 86-73 loss at Oregon
Here is everything Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar said after Washington’s 86-73 loss at Oregon on Sunday night.
One quick note -- sophomore guard Donaven Dorsey did not make the trip. He has the flu and stayed home in Seattle.
(Opening) “Oregon is a very good basketball team. I thought our guys fought. I thought our guys went out and gave a great effort. We couldn’t get over the hump. They’re a good team. They’re long. They pressure you the entire time, and although there were a couple turnovers that cost us, we still only turned the ball over 11 times. I thought our guys put forth a good effort. We weren’t able to get over the hump. Elgin Cook in his last game was very good. He’s very good. Him and Dillon Brooks did a phenomenal job. And they got the win. So give them a lot of credit.”
(How important was the first minute of the second half?) “There were a couple crucial times. The first minute of the second half, also later on, we came back, turned it over, put them on the line. There were certain times during the game that we kind of let our guard down, so to speak, and they took advantage of it, which is what good teams really do. They take advantage of your mistakes.”
(On Oregon’s offensive rebounding) “It helped them. I haven’t looked at the final. I’ve got the final right here – yeah, they had (five) second-chance points at the half. And they had 14 (after) the second half. Obviously that helped them and hurt us.”
(On Oregon’s emotion going for an undefeated home record on senior night) “I thought they had a lot – if you want to talk about emotion, finishing at home with an undefeated slate. This is senior night for them. They’re playing for first place. They had a lot of things to be emotional about and to play for. We had, knowing that if we could somehow pull this game off, we’d have a better shot at making the tournament with an at-large berth. They had a lot of things going for them emotionally. This is their home floor. They’ve obviously played very well. We didn’t come up with a victory, but again, I applaud our guys for fighting the way we thought.”
(On how disappointing it is to not have a chance at an NCAA at-large berth anymore) “The most disappointing thing for me is what I’ve continued to say – that we’ve made improvements and don’t have the wins to show for it. That’s the most disappointing thing. Because we’ve gotten better. but if you just look at the scores, you just look at them from a distance, you can’t tell some of the things that we’re doing much better than we were doing, even when we were 5-1. But other teams have gotten better too.”
(On not having a hangover from the Oregon State loss) “No, and remember I was asked about it, would we have a hangover from the last game? And I didn’t think we would. I thought our guys are just awesome. They came right back in this environment with all this at stake and really worked.”
(On Andrew Andrews putting the team on his shoulders) “He really did. He did a tremendous job of keeping us in that game. He had eight assists. I don’t know if he finished with eight assists. … He was able to handle their pressure, make good decisions with it. He did a great job.”
(On turnovers leading to Oregon points) “Well, some of those were, like I said, we didn’t turn it over a lot, but some of them were crucial to where they went down and scored on them. The offensive rebounds, the putbacks. We talked about how many points they had on that. And then a couple of times they just made athletic plays where they drove around us.”
(On dealing with Oregon’s zone) “The thing is, if we get them to miss, they don’t get to set up in that. But they shot over 50 percent, so they were able to set up in it quite a bit. I thought our guys did a pretty good job – we had one big turnover in the second half – did a decent job of handling it. But we weren’t able to really, really attack it as much as we would have liked. It’s one thing to break it. It’s another thing to attack it.”
(On preparing for Washington State on Wednesday) “We better be serious about it. We better be serious. The questions that I get asked after tough losses is always with this group, do you think you’ll have a hangover or bounce back? That is not something I’ve worried about. This game where on paper, Washington State has one victory, on paper, the last time we were in a situation like this was Santa Barbara, and going into it, we want to make sure that we go into that game and we’re playing at a high level.”
(On the temperament of the team right now) “This group goes into every game thinking, I know we’re going to get this done this time. So we’re disappointed, but I don’t think our guys have lost confidence.”
(On Andrews carrying the team at times) “Well, not everyone can do it. But he’s capable of doing it. I would say it’s more of a fun challenge for him than something that’s hard. This is something that before the season started, he looked forward to doing – being in this position to go and lead his team. So I don’t think he sees it as ‘wow, this is so hard.’ I don’t think he sees it that way.”
This story was originally published February 28, 2016 at 9:27 PM with the headline "Once again, Huskies ‘weren’t able to get over the hump,’ this time in 86-73 loss at Oregon."