NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - BYU VS UCLA

March 20, 2021

Matt Haarms

Hinkle Fieldhouse

BYU Cougars

Postgame Media Conference

UCLA - 73, BYU - 62

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Matt Haarms. Comments on the game tonight?

MATT HAARMS: Disappointed, obviously. This is it for me. So, it's tough to go out like that. Credit to them. They have a great team. They outplayed us. They deserve to win this game. It's just tough. It's a lot of feelings going through my mind right now. That was my college career.

Just grateful for the opportunity I got here at BYU. Grateful for the season we've had. But this really sucks, the feeling I have right now, going out like that in the first round.

Q. Do you feel like there's a point in this game where it tipped and where you guys just, you felt like you lost the game, I guess is what I'm trying to ask?

MATT HAARMS: First half was a struggle for us just because of Juzang, the way he was playing. We were just not able to execute our game plan on him. He was coming off clean and getting great shots and even tough ones. At that point he was hitting tough ones.

In the second half, we were able to claw back to five and they brought it back to 11 where they kept it basically the entire rest of the game. I don't think there was one particular point where we lost the game. If you look back maybe you can say in the first half letting Juzang get going, but we did a better job in the second half. We just couldn't claw back, just weren't able to against them when it mattered.

Q. Was there ever a moment in the game where you felt like the momentum was going on your side and you were getting close to making that run, get back in it?

MATT HAARMS: Yeah, I'd say early in the second half we really thought we had an opportunity there. We cut it down to, I think, five at that point. We just had to take a time-out. We had to keep the momentum going. We weren't able to -- we weren't able to tie the game up there or bring it around in our favor.

So it sucks that we weren't able to do that, but I at that point I think that was the closest we got really in the second half.