Nov. 24, 2009

Recap | Box Score | Notes | AP Gallery

Notre Dame Men’s Basketball
Notre Dame vs. Kennesaw State
November 24, 2009
Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center ” Notre Dame, Ind.

Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey

On the team’s offensive performance…
“I thought we were pretty poised every time we had some pressure on them, with good offensive possessions… we got 19 assists at the end. We got great effort off the bench, I thought Carleton Scott gave us a great help with the left rebound, great average, and you know Tim Abromaitis coming in, didn’t make shots early, but he got going there in the second half. On to Chicago, and we’re looking forward to the next challenge.”

On the team’s improved defensive effort after a relatively lackluster first-half performance…
“I think we were a little better poised, you know, just staying in front of people and… we did a great job when defensive work needed to be done. That’s going to be big for us all year, can we keep teams off the offensive backboard, you know Luke (Harangody) obviously really helped us with that, and then when you have Carleton Scott come in and get you 11, that really helps you out too.”

Kennesaw State Head Coach Tony Ingle

Opening Comments…
“I think we played pretty good the first half, I think we maintained a tempo. We just couldn’t make a shot. We shot 31% in the first half, in the second half we stayed in the game, but at the end we got out-rebounded. Then we couldn’t make a shot when we went to the zone.”

On Carlton Scott’s breakout performance tonight…
“I wasn’t prepared to see [a performance] like that, and I don’t know if [Scott] was. But yeah, he did well. I don’t coach their team, but I think Mike [Brey] did a great job, and I think [the Irish] did a great job keeping their composure in certain situations. I think they rebounded well and we just couldn’t rebound. […] [The Irish] went into the double bonus early so every time we touched them, they had the chance to get two points. […] But, yes, Scott did well.”

On Kennesaw State becoming a Division I program for the first time…
“We try not to cheat the fans when we go out and play. People work hard for their money, and it costs money to come to ball games. And I’d like to think that the people who came to the game tonight were entertained. We battled and scrapped until the end of the game.”

Notre Dame Players Quotes

Luke Harangody – Senior – Forward

On the upcoming away games…
“We get to go out of town for a little bit, and get that away atmosphere on the road and play two tough games back to back. It’ll be a great test for us.”

On becoming the fifth Irish player to reach 1,000 career rebounds…
“To be able to join that group of players from our program and to put my name up there with them is a true honor for me. I didn’t know I needed 14 tonight, and I didn’t know I had 15 until looking at the boxscore.”

On the play of Carleton Scott tonight during a key second half stretch…
“I grabbed Carleton around ten minutes left in the game and I told him this was one of the first times he was playing like a man and he knows that’s his role and that’s exactly what he needs to do. He played great for us tonight. I think now his confidence is sky high; he needed to find his role, and give us minutes like this every night and it’s a scary thing coming off the bench for us. It’s just one of those things where he needed to figure out he could do it on the court, because we’ve seen it in practice. He’s just going to continue to get better.”

On going on the road to play Northwestern later this week…
“Going on the road with an atmosphere like that, and a lot of guys on the team haven’t been there in a while. We can’t play into what they’re trying to get us to do, they want to slow us down, we just have to keep playing our game, and tonight was kind of a game like that, they were trying to slow us down, but we got a win tonight, even though it didn’t look so pretty.”