Furman Paladins

Coach Niko Medved

Opening statement
“Usually if you know me, I’m not at a loss for words, but I kind of am a little bit here. That was an unbelievable gutty performance by our kids. Defense is what’s been doing it for us, and boy, we came on in the second half. We held a team like Mercer to 18-percent shooting. It was incredible toughness, and the kids kept fighting. They kept getting stops. Stephen Croone is our point guard and he came up with 14 rebounds for us tonight; that is just a man’s effort. Kris Acox had 10 rebounds. It’s great to see these kids winning in the way that we’ve been preaching. They’ve really bought in the last couple weeks of what we need to do. I’m real excited from, so, I guess, why stop now?”

On his team’s performance
“That’s what we kept preaching and saying, ‘We’re still in this.’ I thought we were jittery early. They were scoring out of our offense. We were just fumbling a lot of plays and missing some easy shots. I thought we were a little bit nervous. But, we slowed down and only turned it over three times in the second half and got into a groove, and we did that with our defense. I thought we shared the ball a little bit better in the second half. We won with our defense and it was great to see and I couldn’t be happier for these guys.”

Sophomore Kris Acox

On huddle with two minutes remaining
“I told them they need to stay together. We have a lot of four-minute drills in practice, and I told the guys to finish this last four-minute game and to stay together, stay focused and stay locked in.”

Junior Stephen Croone

On 14-rebound effort
“Our assistant coach, coach (Jay) McAuley challenged me to lead the team in rebounds tonight. So, I had that on my mind going into the game and put that extra effort in. I’m glad it helped our team win. I wanted to do anything I could do.”

Mercer Bears

Coach Bob Hoffman

Opening statement
“We had several looks to tie it. We just didn’t do a very good job of helping our guys finish the game. It’s amazing we were in the game shooting 18 percent from the field in the second half and had opportunities to still finish. They played their tails off. Stephen Croone was amazing. He had 14 rebounds and was player of the year tonight, for sure. They came at us and kept coming at us. We tried to stay in front of them and they got to the free throw line a lot. That ended up being the difference in the game. Offensive rebounds got the separation for them. You can’t give any kind of team that has the experience that they do, in the sense of how they want to play the game, that many extra opportunities.”

On failing to hold on to an 11-point lead with 14 minutes to go
“We got guys in foul trouble. We had multiple guys get in foul trouble in the second half when they were driving us. It was very physical. Plays were bang-bang and went against us. That was the difference. How they pursued the ball like crazy, they were getting more shots than us because of how they were working.”

On playing another close game
“We won some of those. The last two games against Furman were one-possession games where we were fortunate to win. They’re a good team. I’ve been telling people all along that they are probably the best last-place team in America in any conference. Croone didn’t play against Wofford and it’s a two-point game at the end of the year. I’m sure Wofford already won the league, so it may have been a little different, but that’s the kind of team they are. They had Chattanooga beat. You can go down the list of how many teams they were right there with but were unable to finish. Tonight, they finished and we didn’t. It’s disappointing but I’m thrilled for them because their coaching staff has done an amazing job keeping those guys hungry in the midst of all that losing. That’s not easy to do and continue to work with those young guys to make them as good as they are right now. That’s a credit to them, their staff, and those kids to stay in the moment and believe that they can get it done.”

Senior forward T.J. Hallice

On his thoughts about the season
“I’m very proud of my team. Coming in, the seven freshmen have come a long way. The team has come a long way. I appreciate them every day because they didn’t quit on me. All you can ask for as a senior is a team that doesn’t quit on you. I love them for that.”