MAUI INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY NOVAVAX

November 26, 2024

Anthony Grant

Malachi Smith

Lahaina Civic Center

Dayton Flyers

Postgame Press Conference

Iowa State 89, Dayton 84.

ANTHONY GRANT: Obviously a hard-fought game. I thought our guys gave a great effort tonight, a quick turnaround from last night. Disappointing ending to last night's game and a disappointing ending tonight, but proud of our guys for the fight they showed.

Yeah, I think for us, we knew this tournament, how talented a field this was coming in and how challenging it would be for us. We're just going to continue to try to control the things we can control and continue to get better, and we've got another opportunity tomorrow.

Q. What have you guys proved to yourselves with these two performances against two of the best teams in the country?

MALACHI SMITH: I think we proved that we're a top-25 team in this country and we can hang with anybody. We played two great teams, probably two top-10, I don't know what rank Carolina was, but two top-10 teams, and it came down to two possessions both games.

I think we was in control of both games, but I think we learned good about ourselves, something good. Took some L's but going to turn it into lessons.

Q. How hard were they to guard?

MALACHI SMITH: Yeah, they're a good team. Both teams we played were good. Iowa State, they did a good job of seeing what we've struggled at and they just kept with it. They were kind of bigger and physical than us, and that's what they did, got us in foul trouble. But they're a great team, so congrats to them.

Q. Anthony, talk about what they were doing offensively to keep scoring again and again in the second half.

ANTHONY GRANT: Yeah, as I told the guys, that's two games in the second half defensively we weren't able to capitalize on what we were doing offensively. I thought we were really, really good both games, both halves from an offensive standpoint. We were able to exploit some things there.

But you've got to be able to get stops. You've got to be able to get rebounds. You've got to keep them out of transition.

There's takeaways. There's things you've always heard me say. You want to try to learn through winning, and sometimes you learn through taking tough losses.

For us, I think from an offensive standpoint, we were able to have some success ourselves against the No. 1 ranked defensive team in the country.

So we have to be better defensively. If we can do that, we've got a chance to really take our team to another level.

It's hard in the moment to see opportunity slip through your fingers because we had two great opportunities here. We've got another one tomorrow. We've got to have a short memory, so to speak. We've got to make sure we're prepared to face one of the best teams in the country, a two-time defending champ that is feeling a certain way about their games that they felt like they should have won, as well.

Q. What did you think of the flagrant foul call?

ANTHONY GRANT: I'd rather not comment.