Head Coach Dave Bezold

On defeating Missouri-St. Louis…
“The seniors came out and gave us a great cushion to work with in the second half. We knew they were going to continue to play hard because they had a chance to go to the conference tournament still, so they were going to battle us all the way to the end. We really were hoping that they didn’t have a shot at it because maybe they would have stopped playing a little bit, but they didn’t. To their credit, they made it a ballgame. We were very fortunate that Steve Purdon, down the end when we were struggling offensively, made some big plays.”

On Jonathan Griffin’s double-double…
“He’s a great player. He’s right there with (Indianapolis’s) David Logan. It was a tough matchup. We were very fortunate the first time. Kevin Reinhardt did a great job on him defensively. Tonight was one of those nights where he was just making some tough shots and got to the free-throw line a lot. He’s a great player.”

On the importance of getting a win before the conference tournament…
“It was extremely important for your psyche because you want to go in on a positive note knowing that you can win a basketball game and knowing that you can finish one off. It was probably helpful that they came back on us, so we had to deal with some adversity in the second half.”

On the upcoming conference tournament…
“We really believe that we can beat anybody in this conference, and we can win three straight games. Now, we haven’t proven that we can beat one of the top teams yet, and that’s our challenge. We’re going to have to beat three of the teams in the top upper echelon, but we feel like we can do it and we’re looking forward to it.”

Steve Purdon

On Missouri-St. Louis’s run in the second half…
“It didn’t concern me. We did kind of get complacent with our lead, which is a problem. It’s easier to do that when you have such a good first half. We know as a team that we don’t have any more time to do anything like that because the next time we lose will be the last time we play.”

On scoring 19 points…
“You always want to have a good game, especially in the last game at your homecourt, but more importantly we had to get a win going into the tournament because we need our confidence. As we start the tournament, like I said, we can’t afford to lose anymore.”

On Pat Cary’s performance…
“Pat played excellent. He did exactly what we expected of him. There were times that they were guarding straight up, one-on-one. We feel anytime somebody tries to do that to Pat, he’s going to score every time like he did tonight.”

Pat Cary

On how Derek Smith’s play helps him…
“It helps me a lot, but more importantly, when Walt and Steve are on that helps me out more because then they can’t double down on me. If they double down on me, then they’re going to get wide open shots. So, as long as they are hitting, me and Derek will be one-on-one both and no one can stop us.”

On preparing for the conference tournament…
“It’s nothing special. It’s just coming out and having a good practice.”

On the conference tournament…
“I don’t feel any added pressure at all. I just want to get out there and have some fun and hopefully pull off a few upsets and win the tournament.”

On the play of the seniors…
“It was good. I knew we were going to have a good game with it being Senior Day. Walt, Sean and Jordan have been here four or five years, and we knew we were going to have a good crowd and we were playing UMSL, who’s down as a team. So, we knew coming in the game we would be able to get our shots, we’d be able to get our points, and we could win on Senior Day. It was nice.”