Postgame Quotes From No. 18 Ohio State vs. Penn State – Ohio State Buckeyes
1/5/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 5, 2006
Recap | Box Score | Notes
Thad Matta, Ohio State head coach
On if he predicted such an offensive explosion
“I would have never guessed that. We played well out of the gates and we were able to rest some guys during the game. No one played more than 26 minutes. We were focused from the start on Penn State and then wanted to finish off the game as best we could.”
On his focus going into the game
“The one thing is that we hadn’t run our transition game very well. That was our focus coming into this game. During the game I was more consumed with our defensive game. We still made some errors that we shouldn’t have and I think we let up a little bit, but we continued to play our game and did a great job sharing the basketball.”
On what led to the offensive production
“We did a nice job rebounding at the offensive end. We felt if we got rebounds we could get out and go and that would help our offense. Any time you shoot the three the way we did it opens up different avenues. We started moving the ball and it improves matters. Fortunately we didn’t have to run much of our offense tonight. When you get stops it flows out of the transition game. We moved the ball well and we got the shots we wanted.”
J.J. Sullinger, senior guard
On his teams performance on the night.
“This is what we live to play for. We were undefeated going into Big Ten play and we wanted to send a message.”
On Coach Matta’s halftime talk
“Coach Matta told us the score was 0-0 at halftime. We wanted to play better in the second half, and that’s what we set out to do.”
On how the team scored 104 points yet only having two players in double figures
“It shows how balanced we are. Anyone on our team is capable of having a big night. We are just trying to get better everyday.”
On preparing his teammates for the trip to Indiana on Saturday
“I think they know what to expect. Their fans are great and this game is on national television. If I have to tell them to get up for this game, then they don’t have a heartbeat.”
Sylvester Mayes, junior guard
On the pass to Ron Lewis in the second half
“I was just trying to create and luckily Ron Lewis was there.”
Ron Lewis, junior guard
On Ohio State’s performance in the second half
“It’s a different aspect and we still have a lot of games to go. We can’t come out sluggish in the second half.”
On his high scoring against Penn State
“I always try to keep my form and shoot the same way each time. We take every shot with confidence.”
Ed DeChellis, Penn State head coach
On Ohio State’s performance “Ohio State had a great performance tonight. They shot the ball and I’ve never seen a team shoot the ball like that before. It was not just one guy shooting – they had many. They have a very, very good ball team and we defensively didn’t do a good job.”
On Ohio State’s shooting
“Everyone shot well on Ohio State’s team. We weren’t after them like we needed to be. I’ve never seen a team shoot how they do and it wasn’t just one person. They all shot well even on three’s. They were a hard team to guard.”
