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STATE FARM MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 6, 2020

St. Louis, Missouri - Arch Madness

Missouri State - 78, Indiana State - 51

THE MODERATOR: The victorious Bears are with us. They have a date in the semifinals tomorrow against Valparaiso. That's Game 2 in our double header. Lamont West and Gaige Prim represent the student body for the Bears. Dana Ford is in the middle. He'll give a statement on the game.

DANA FORD: First of all, congratulate Coach Lansing on a great year. They did a great job and had a fantastic season, and I'm sure they'll play more. I'm not sure what tournament, but I have a lot of respect for them and what they do.

I'm really proud of how hard our guys played. Just happy to see them happy. I thought we came out in both halves and took it one possession at a time and tried to play together as much as we can on both ends, and I'm just really, really proud of their effort.

Q. Coach, just the high level performance from you guys. Just the way you guys responded to that little run there when Indiana State had a 7-0 run there in the second half, just to be able to respond to that, how proud are you for that?
DANA FORD: I'm really proud. We're trying to encourage the players to not put a cap on themselves, meaning the other team doesn't have to make a run. And I thought tonight we did a good job with that mindset of continuing to play and not falling into it has to be a madness, or it has to be this, or it has to be that. We just focused on playing hard, and they did a good job.

Q. Dana, the physical tone your defense set, can you illustrate now important that was and what your defensive plan was going in to get Indiana State out of sorts?
DANA FORD: Well, I mean, it was really important because they do a good job running their offense. They've got really good balance on offense, so it's not like you can just guard the three or just guard the end. You've got to guard everything. We're fortunate to have guys that are some interchangeable parts. We did a pretty good job in the first half keeping the ball in front of us, helping whenever we didn't. I just thought that our guys were really locked in defensively.

We've had all week to prepare, so I think that they really did a good job of executing what we simply asked them to do. I mean, it's just -- when we have so many interchangeable parts, it's not very complicated.

Q. Coach, I know you guys look to one game at a time and all that, but you see the upsets that happened earlier today, top seeds are gone. A path may be open to the ticket that goes to something at the end of this tournament. Do you think a little bit about that?
DANA FORD: No. We finished sixth in the league. We just got to .500 today, I think. I'm just -- we're just looking at the next possession. We're going to get these guys back, get them rested up, and we'll do the first possession of the next game and just take it one possession at a time.

Q. Lamont, you've kind of talked about how you guys can just get better and that we haven't seen your guys' best. How close was that tonight to how good you guys can be?
LAMONT WEST: We practiced real hard, and Coach always gets us prepared for the games. We want to play for each other. We want to play for him as well. We can only get better from here. Like Coach said, we can't put a cap on ourselves. We can only get better from here.

Q. Coach, you have talked throughout the season how you guys start the second half tells you how that game's going to go, and today it went really well. What was said at halftime to keep that energy going?
DANA FORD: I think the first thing we emphasized all week, you achieve what you emphasize. We made a concentrated effort to get their attention of how we start the second half. Again, not putting a cap on ourselves, meaning you don't have to have a lull. Something has to happen for you not to play well, but you don't have to make that decision.

We just hadn't been coming out of halftime very well down the stretch, but you have to give these guys credit today. They did a good job moving the basketball, trying to keep the defensive intensity up, and make things difficult for Indiana State.

Q. Lamont, you said play for him. Just how much was that kind of weighing on you guys this week? Just how nice was it to have that kind of performance for that?
LAMONT WEST: I mean, it really hurt us. You know, he was really important to our team. Everybody dreams of going to college and playing for a good program, and he really didn't get that opportunity. So we just want to not take each day for granted. So we want to just go out there and just play for him.

DANA FORD: I'd rather not talk about A.J.'s situation out of respect to his family. We're not going to make anything about that, but I understand why you'd have to ask that.

Q. Gaige, it was a pretty scrappy game down low. What did you see, and what did you like from you, yourself, and your teammates?
GAIGE PRIM: I think my teammates give me the ball a lot. I think that just helps a lot because I can't do any of this without them. So it's a team game. Guys are going to double, kick out, get wide for a three for Ross, so probably get it like that.

Q. Gaige, just talk about it being March and trying to get on a roll here and the tournaments and the NCAAs and all that.
GAIGE PRIM: It's really important to get on a roll, start early. I think this win helps us a lot going in the right direction. So we've just got to keep it going.

Q. Gaige, just kind of what do you make of the day? I mean, just the top three seeds going down. What's kind of the player's mindset when you see a thing like that?
GAIGE PRIM: It happens. It's March. Anything can happen. Any team can win on any given day. So should be ready for anything.

THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you very much. See you tomorrow against the Crusaders, second game in the doubleheader.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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