Kevin Keatts: "I'm proud of the way my guys fought"
NC State head coach Kevin Keatts answered questions from the Wolfpack’s radio crew following the 71-69 loss to Pittsburgh Saturday afternoon.
On the key factors that swung the game…
I thought they had some breaks that went their way. When you look at it, the difference in the game [was] I think [Pittsburgh] got to the line 25 times and made 23 out of their 25 attempts. When you look at it, the biggest difference, I thought John Hugley made a difference down the stretch [with] 21 points and 10 rebounds, and 13 for 15 from three free-throw line. Other than that, I thought it was an even game. I gotta be really honest, I’m proud of the way my guys fought. We had some adversity on the road, we were down as much as seven, figured a way to come back, took the lead a couple times. We did some really good things. Unfortunately, we had to come out on the short end of the stick tonight. Love how we played, love our effort. Obviously, it’s one of those things where our depth and our post really showed tonight. Because obviously we could have used a more healthy Ebe [Dowuona] and Jaylon Gibson a little more. We’ll move on and figure it out, we’ll try to learn from it and move on.
On defending John Hugley…
I thought he got a little better, I thought we did a good job. If you take away those free throws that he got, you’re looking at possibly eight points, not getting completely wiped out with his post stuff. But he did make some plays, and he’s had some opportunities to work on it because he’s been trapped probably for the last four, five games in a row and I think he’s done a good job. But our guys played, you talk about what we did, I thought a guy like Thomas Allen came off the bench and gave us a tremendous lift and made some shots. It was good to see the ball go in the hole for Cam [Hayes], especially early. And Ebe, who was on some restrictions, was able to give us 30 minutes, which I thought he did well. It was a good game, we just obviously came up a little bit short.
On if Ebe Dowuona had a good matchup…
Well I just think his physicality is a little better in this type of game than Jaylon Gibson.
On Jericole Hellems’ play…
It’s tough, because we need older guys on the floor and I thought he did a good job. I’ve got to go back and look at it, but I thought he did a good job drawing a block, but they called it a charge. His first foul was maybe a reach-in, a slap on the arm of a shooter. But we’ve got to stay out of that because we need him to play.