Coach Slessinger's Quotes Following Saturday's Win Over McNeese State

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Overall thoughts on the game
"It was a great back-and-forth game. We had a great run to start the game. They had a good middle run, we had a second comeback and we just kind of warred it out at the end of the first half. In the second half, we were able to get some spark going and got to where were stopped trading baskets and grew the lead a little bit. It was a good game. Defensively, we were able to get our gameplan to where we wanted and kept them from getting going hot from 3. The biggest key was guarding the 3 well against them and not giving up a bunch of offensive rebounds. [Craig] McFerrin is a guy who I respect so much and I think he's such a good player, but we knew we were going to have to guard at a high rate to be able to do that and I'm glad the team was able to execute there."
 
On winning against a McNeese State team that had success of late
"They were hot. They were a team that was as hot as a firecracker and won three of their last four. Obviously, Dave and I are more than opposing coaches. We're great friends and worked together side by side for six years [at Northwestern State]. I love him as a brother. It was just a good Southland Conference game."
 
On the turning point of the game
"The part that I was excited about for our team from the four-minute mark on was in the huddle, they were talking among each other, emphasizing shot selection, trying to shorten the game up, getting stops and keeping them in front of them. They were saying all the coaching points I was thinking to each other. That was kind of neat turning point for me. I think they're turning the corner on the things that are important for us to be able to win the game. They did that intuitively among each other."
 
On winning during Homecoming 2016
"It was a great atmosphere. My hat goes off to our athletic department staff, the student involvement and the leadership of the alumni office for all of the things they did to help prepare an incredible week. It wasn't just tonight. It was a great week. Monday, the game was great and we had an unbelievable concert. You can look at all the activities that took place on campus. The second line parade was yesterday, the entertainment on Thursday night and everything that went on today with the tailgate and the Homecoming court. It was just a great week. It was nice to have some former student-athletes back – to have Kentrell Martin back, to have Kyle Buggs back and to have Lovell Cook back in our locker room made it a great day for us on a lot of levels."
 
On the effort of Kevin Hill off the bench once again
"He got banged up really good in practice on Thursday. He turned that ankle that has been bothering him again. He's been fighting through that all year. He had a really tough bone bruise on his knee, got it x-rayed and everything was negative. He has big guts and a lot of heart. He came back, never missed a practice, kept the great attitude he's always had and was ready to compete and do everything that we needed to do. It was really important for him to come back and have a good day. He really showed us his toughness."
 
On the upcoming home game against Nicholls
"It's a huge opportunity for us to finish off a very important three-game homestand. They're a very talented offensive team and they execute their offensive system as well as anybody in our league. They're also a team that we lost to two out of three times last year. We beat them in the Southland Conference Tournament but we lost to them two out of three times. We know that and that's very heavy on our team's mind. We need to get off to a good start and finish this thing off well. We need to keep getting better at the things that are positives for us and fix things like the turnovers and shooting free throws better. We just need to keep executing."
 
On if he feels the team is turning the corner a bit
"I think so. We knew the offense would come. It just didn't come as fast as any of us would have liked. A lot of credit goes to my staff. They kept grinding and working until we could make a couple of tweaks to really open some stuff up and give us other opportunities to get some more baskets. I'm really happy with that and I'm really lucky to have good guys who have worked their tails off."