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NATIONAL INVITATION TOURNAMENT

March 29, 2016

New York, New York

George Washington - 65, San Diego State - 46

COACH LONERGAN: That was a really good win for our program. Played a guy who is a Hall of Fame coach and I'm proud of our guys. The thing that kept us from making the NCAA Tournament was really our defense. I could never get it up to par. But they were really motivated going to NIT and we've been good offensively all year and they really started playing team defense. I thought our 1-3-1 was excellent, forced them to shoot a lot of threes.

We are so happy to be here in New York and to get a win and play for a championship, we know we've got a great Valparaiso team waiting on us. We'll enjoy this for an hour, get some rest and focus tomorrow on Valpo.

Q. Only six turnovers today, talk about the ball security.
PATRICIO GARINO: That was key for us, handling that press that they had. We talked about it a lot during our scouting and I think we did a great job, Alex, Joe, Paul, even Kevin and Tyler, I think we were secure with the ball and making the right passes. I think we are more confident than ever right now. If we do what we are supposed to do, what we go through during the scout, I think we're good.

Q. Guarding against their length, especially in the 1-3-1, how did you feel those match-ups were?
PATRICIO GARINO: We were confident. I think we were really secure. Again, knowing the personnel, the other three shooters, I think we did a fantastic job only allowing three threes, I think that was phenomenal.

I think just being locked in on defense that, was key, no matter if we were 1-3-1 or man, knowing the matchups and the focus was the key.

Q. Tyler, can you discuss the importance of getting the senior class one more game, so important for this program; what have they meant?
TYLER CAVANAUGH: This is a great team. I mean, I'm so excited to be able to play two more days with them, one more game. We're a balanced team and that's very fun. Everyone contributes and that's why we won tonight. Matt Hart is diving into the bench over there, and I think everyone contributed, and that made up for Kevin having kind of an off-night and I expect him to be on top of his game the next game. Joe battled through an injury. We'll be ready to go. I'm excited to play with these guys one more time?

Q. When you look at the start to both halves, seems like in a lot of ways the defense was strong early and that impacted your offense eventually. Did you feel the same way, that you had defense affect offense in the right way tonight?
TYLER CAVANAUGH: Yeah, coming out in the second half has been a weakness for us this year I would say. We did it tonight. We defended. We made shots and that was big. The first four minutes of the second half are huge, and that's when you knock a team out like we did tonight.

Q. I'm sure you guys saw some film of them playing their last three games. They were obviously very good and blew out some very good teams. Are you surprised it was this easy for you?
TYLER CAVANAUGH: We had a great scout, and they are very athletic. They didn't make some shots tonight, which helped us, and I thought our 1-3-1 was very good and when we are committed and when we rebound, we're very tough to beat. And we made some shots tonight. I mean, that's our keys to success right there.

Q. In the beginning of the game, you came out and drew some charges. Did that set the tone for how you were going to play physically and sort of being locked in?
TYLER CAVANAUGH: Yeah, had two charges early, and locked in is the right word. When we come out focused, we're tough. We know we can score. That's been -- we've proved that, and as long as we commit to defense every game, we're going to be very tough to beat.

Q. What were the factors that contributed to your efficiency in that stretch?
COACH LONERGAN: We were trying to get the ball up the court because their halfcourt defense is just so good. But I don't know, I think we were executing our plays when we had to. It didn't seem to me like we were scoring that easy because they were blocking shots, even when they didn't block shots, even the end of the game, you saw us miss an uncontested layup because we're thinking about those shot-blockers.

But I think we had energy, and I think our guys really took some pride so night in the defense. We wanted to make their shots come from the outside and that got our offense going. We wanted them to shoot a lot of threes. They took 22 threes, and I think that kind of played in our hands.

Q. Somebody else was alluding to this, but they were a team that during the regular season struggled to score and lately had been scoring a lot. In the scouting, were you looking at them as a team that had momentum, or were you looking at the offense as potentially a weakness in their team?
COACH LONERGAN: You know, at the lunch on yesterday Coach Fisher said they had been scoring lately, and also they got home games and they have a great crowd. I've heard it's one of the best crowds in the country and hopefully I never have to experience it.

I think them playing those games at home; we had to go to Monmouth and we've been in New York a lot. I think the crowd helped us, second highest number of alumni is from the New York area, and being to Barclays a couple times, I think our guys were just confident. We wanted to enjoy this. I was probably more nervous than anyone after watching them on film and then reading the Georgia Tech's coach's comments about how they were in the wrong tournament; that's an NCAA team, I just really felt that -- we didn't watch too much film of them to be honest with you.

Our guys hung in there and Cavanaugh has been unbelievable. I can't talk enough about him because he does so much for us. He helps handle the pressure and he just comes up with the three at the right time and I thought he did a great job of rebounding, defensive rebounds in the second half because it's really hard to limit San Diego State to one shot.

In the second half, I don't think they had nearly -- well, I guess they still had a lot of offensive rebounds, but didn't seem like they got as many when we were nursing that kind of 14 to 18-point lead.

Q. You have one more game with your seniors, with all they have meant to the program, anything special you want to say to them?
COACH LONERGAN: I'm so happy, and I'm not a big motivation guy, but someone sent me a net for some reason. So we've been having this net we've been taking on the road for the last month. We kept that net even after we didn't make the NCAAs and kind of touch it before every game and rub it and different things.

I told them, I want them to leave a legacy. I didn't want it to be a one NCAA, two NIT's, one win at Pitt. And they have taken advantage of it. We've beaten some good teams here. I was heartbroken we didn't make the Big Dance, but I don't want -- I want people to hold me responsible for it and not them, because hey, we have a lack of depth and we have a lot of weaknesses we're playing against the best coaches in the country and we got exposed a couple times.

I'm proud of them. We are playing for a championship. We know it's not going to be easy and I can't wait for Thursday night and I'm very happy I get to coach these guys for two more days.

Q. How much of an asset do you feel like Tyler has been and what can we expect on Thursday?
COACH LONERGAN: Well, he's been incredible. He's scored double figures every game this year and then I didn't realize it, I think he's averaging over 20 points a game now in the NIT, so he's really stepped it up. He's taken the pressure off Kevin. They are so good with each other. They are so good playing with each other, because Kevin is such a good passer.

Tyler knows the game, everything he says, it's amazing his IQ. I'm happy for him because he had a lot of options when he left Wake Forest and we recruited him in high school. He was a jump shooter and he's become a rebounder. He's worked on his body. I just think going to next year, could be a Conference Player of the Year season for us.

He's really tried to help get these seniors to this point and I can't say enough good things about him as a person, as well.

Q. I think you opened in man and in the second you opened in the 1; was that the plan to save a lot of the zone for the second half or once it got going you stuck with it?
COACH LONERGAN: Well, part of it was early in the game it was 9-3 and we had nine fouls and we were guarding against foul trouble. Garino had two, and then Joe McDonald sprained his ankle pretty bad, so halftime we talked to the team.

I wanted to play Joe. He's a senior, and we just decided if we were going to play him, we'd probably have to hide him on the weak side of the 1-3-1. That's why we stuck with it. They weren't making many threes and we were able to keep Joe in there even though he wasn't 100 percent.

So I didn't plan on playing for basically the whole second half.

Q. The focus on defense, you've progressively gotten better at that in tournament. Valpo has been known for their defense; do you feel that's coming together at the right time and what are you expecting Thursday on that side of the basketball?
COACH LONERGAN: Well, I'm a big one-game-at-a-time guy, so I'm not going to lie to you. My assistants were scouting Valpo. I'm a fan of theirs. I watched them one night, got something to eat, had ice water and salad at Texas Roadhouse down the street and I watched them destroy St. Mary's who I thought was a tournament team. So I haven't thought a lot about Valpo and I'll be thinking about them tonight.

I know they are well coached. They are very -- every team here was really, really good. I'll know a lot more about them hopefully by tomorrow morning. But truth is, I haven't really thought about them yet because I was so focused on San Diego State.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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NATIONAL INVITATION TOURNAMENT

March 29, 2016

Mike Lonergan

Tyler Cavanaugh

Patricio Garino