The first two minutes of the second half we were a different team. We've been a good defensive team. That's who we are and who we've been.

This is just what we needed. We needed to be home in the friendly confines of our arena, in our city and at our school. This is only one game, but its a special game for our school and our players.

This is a very important game for us. I am pleased that we have put ourselves in a position to play a meaningful game.

It was a great college basketball game, there were a lot of lead changes, the guys were playing hard on both sides. We got back in the game and we had a chance to win it. You have to give UNO credit, they played their hearts out. My guys played well; each team had chances.

It's difficult for the pitchers when things like this happen. It takes away the inside corner. Our pitchers are taken out of the game in a certain way.

This is what we've done all year. The thing we talked about at halftime was to give ourselves a chance to walk out with our heads held high, and the only way we could do that was giving the maximum effort. The guys did that. After the first half, that's the only thing you can ask for.

They are the most athletic team we're going to play all year and they did a good job of using it tonight. Our guys were looking over their shoulder because they blocked a lot of shots in the first half.

Southern Miss is our big rival. We will have to play our best to win. In the first game, Forte was the difference and so was Beasley. We need to do a better job on those two.

The thing that I saw was two or three of our guys had a chance at intercepting the ball, but they didn't do it. I don't know if they ran into each other or if they tipped the ball, but we didn't knock the pass down or intercept it.

We got out-toughed. We knew coming in, we'd have to do the intangibles to win, but they were the tougher team for 40 minutes.