RE: Kent State vs. Buffalo (MAC Semis)
Here’s Kent State’# postgame press conference:
KEN MATHER: We want to welcome Kent State Golden Flashes to the press conference room. We'll let Head Coach Rob Senderoff open with an opening statement and then we'll take questions for Jalen Avery.
COACH SENDEROFF: Well, disappointing loss for us. I give Buffalo credit. Their roster, their team, they played better than we did tonight. We had played really hard and we played really hard tonight, but we didn't play well.
Obviously in the second half I think the rebounding really made a difference. We had cut it a couple times, and it seemed like every time we cut it, they either got a steal for a leakout or they got an offensive rebound. They're a good team, so give them credit.
Q. Jalen, first half you guys were really looking to get it inside and couldn't. Just kind of talk about that. Seeing you guys all year, that's the one thing it seems you guys feed off of, and not being able to do that seemed to just kind of leak out into everything else. What did they do or how accurate is that?
JALEN AVERY: The way they were guarding the post, they guard the post a lot different than we're used to. We were trying to get it in and we had a couple different ways that we had talked about pregame that we wanted to try to do to be able to get into the post because we have to be able to play off Adonis. As you say, we struggled to get it in, and simple as that, we have to be able to get it to him because like you say, we feed off of him.
Q. Jalen, just kind of talk about you made that run in the second half like Coach said. I know you made a couple big 3s, I believe it was, and you start to get into it. Just talk about that and what they were able to do to kind of nip that in the bud.
JALEN AVERY: We were going to the timeout, I think we were down like 18 or something like that. I just told my guys like our back was against the wall so we just was going to have to just fight. I just wanted to being the leader on this team, I tried to just give us a spark. We just had to get stops and we didn't get the stops that we needed to.
Q. Coach, just same question on their defensive first half on Adonis.
COACH SENDEROFF: Yeah, we really wanted to get the ball inside and we didn't do a very good job of it. They did a good job taking things away. What we didn't get is enough ball reversals and getting it inside on the second pass or the third pass. We just didn't do a great job with that. They made an emphasis of not letting him catch the ball, they did a good job of not letting him catch the ball, and we didn't do a good enough job making sure that he caught the ball.
Q. These guys are obviously really good in so many ways. How big is it when Harris rolls out there and starts hitting 3s?
COACH SENDEROFF: He's a good player. They have four AllConference players, and that's part of it, is that you try to take something away and when they need a big basket, he's been as good. Obviously CJ Massinburg is a great player, he's been in this league a long time. Nick Perkins, the same. But he's an X factor. He really is very, very good and he played great tonight. A couple huge, huge baskets when they needed it them, or not needed them but when we were going on a run. He's a good player.
KEN MATHER: Thank you, Rob.
COACH SENDEROFF: Thanks.
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Kent State vs. Buffalo (MAC Semis)
