The game plan all week was to get the ball inside. We have more size than them, so we wanted to take advantage of that. If they wanted to double (team), then we'd look for our shooters on the outside.

He plays great defense. He fights, he scratches, he claws. He had a great game.

In our conference, everybody is going to battle each other. People are going to get knocked off all the time. If we can stay ahead of the game, it's only going to make things easier later on.

I'm extremely proud of our effort. I think that's as hard as we've ever played.

It was one of best games of the year. I think it was one of the best high school games of the year -- two great teams going at it.

It's been balanced all year. We've got six guys with over 200 shots (attempted). They're coming from every which way.

It's a good win, especially after we had a tough defeat (in the Feb. 21 semifinals) against Larkin. We wanted to play for a championship, but we'll take third place. Elgin has been playing great basketball, but we just found a way to win.

They had only two field goals (a pair of three-pointers out of East's zone defense from Pat Cummings) in the fourth quarter. They had 21 free throws. That's what beat us. That's where we got beat. Our team knows it.

They got it down to four, but we closed out the game well. We didn't turn the ball over, we did all the things needed to win.

They're the defending (tournament) champs. We've seen them and they're not a 12 seed.