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AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 14, 2019Frank HaithJeriah HorneMemphis, Tennessee SMU - 74, Tulsa, 65 COACH FRANK HAITH: Okay, thank you. Obviously, I thought we struggled shooting the ball. We took 33 threes, and we don't want to take 33 threes. But I though we had opportunities to throw the ball inside more. We didn't. We just couldn't buy a basket, and then we couldn't guard McMurray. I thought he was fantastic. Those two things really did us in. Q. For you, once you guys got it down to 6, their lead, did you feel like, having come back from 20 points, you guys could make it close and come back all the way? JERIAH HORNE: Yes. First and foremost, I would like to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Yeah, I did. I think we had a lot of momentum going into that little stretch there. We gave it all we got. We continued to fight, even though it wasn't going well for us at that point in time in the game. But I did feel like we gave ourselves a great chance to win that game. Q. It was more than seven minutes at the start of the second half you guys didn't score. You weren't out there for all that time. What was going on with that? JERIAH HORNE: Really it was both teams that were struggling to score, you know. I think, at least from our perspective over on the bench, we were looking at is as we have our opportunity to come back. And we -- you know, we took a good chance at that opportunity, and I feel like we fought hard. Q. You have had games where you have shot really well. There have been games where you haven't shot well. When it is happening like this in a game like this, what can you do during the game? COACH FRANK HAITH: During that stretch there, I think we went seven minutes without scoring and I think we missed the first 10 threes in the second half. I thought we were pressing. We were trying so hard and we had some really good looks. It just didn't go. And we were getting stops. I think we stopped their first five or six possessions. If we could have scored a little bit, it would have made it interesting. I will commend our guys. We kept fighting. We had open threes, we had shots in the paint. They blocked a couple of our layups around the basket. It's tough. All you can do is continue to encourage your guys. We were a little stressing and we were a little tight and I felt we were competing and trying really hard. Q. Lawson had a ton of rebounds. Your guys were fighting, but it wasn't resulting in points? COACH FRANK HAITH: There are games like that where we were competing -- we had ten offensive rebounds and he had five of them. So we were doing things. That is easily an indicator of how hard you are playing when you are getting loose balls and getting second shots. I thought we were doing that. We couldn't put it in the hole. I thought we were executing offensive, we got some good looks. Then, McMurray hit some big shots. We couldn't score. We cut it to six. McMurray hit a big shot on the right-wing. He made some big plays for them when they needed him. Our guys kept fighting. We couldn't put the ball in the hole. Q. It's always tough when a season ends. What did you say to the guys in the locker room? COACH FRANK HAITH: We want to congratulate and thank our seniors, Alex, Daquan and Lindsay, Tap -- they have had great careers. We wish them well. We are always here for them. And to our returning guys. We have to have some huge improvements between now and next year and then we have to continue to recruit. I didn't say that to them, but we have to continue to recruit. Q. Being one of those returning guys, do you see some things to improve on and positives to take from this year? JERIAH HORNE: I feel like the coach said. Everybody has to work and looking forward to the next season, since this one is behind us now. And just continuing to work on us coming together even more as a team and working on some things off the court as well will be very important. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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