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RV/25 BAYLOR 79 (11-3, 1-1), NR/NR OKLAHOMA STATE 62 (9-5, 1-1)
Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016
Ferrell Center (Waco, Texas)
Attendance: 5,665
BAYLOR POSTGAME QUOTES

Head Coach Scott Drew
Opening Statementà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"Well, that's life in the Big 12. One game you start out like crud, the next game you start out well. I'll sleep better tonight than I did the other night. I thought we did really well. Rico [Gathers] set the tone inside and was tremendous on the glass. That was to me the difference. We were able to get into transition because we were able to get rebounds. Our defense was much more active in the beginning of the game. Credit to Oklahoma State. Coach Ford always does a great job with adjustments. With them, you never feel good about any margin of victory or whatever you're up because you know they press, and they're going to change things up and give themselves a way to get back in it."

On Rico Gathers reaching 1,000 career rebounds against Oklahoma Stateà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"Rico's 12 offensive rebounds is amazing, finishing with 17 [points] and 17 [rebounds]. He was very efficient tonight. He played a very solid game."

On starting out fast and solid game planà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"We emphasize it every game, just sometimes in games it happens and in some games it doesn't. In this league especially, if you can't get stops and score in transition, the guards play so good and it's tough to get a lot of stops. We tried to do a better job at identifying shooters. Tonight, we contested some shots and they missed them. We just tried to get the urgency where we tried to make it as difficult as possible to score. The key is getting one-and-done on the glass, and allowing us to get in transition so we can score. When we can score, then we can set our defense."

On the final seven minutes of the gameà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"I'd like to say we contested more shots and made them miss. Our crowd really came into play there, and we were able to get a couple of stops and score. The crowd really affects games and momentum. We got stops and scored, and then we were able to keep getting stops. You never feel safe with any lead, so we just tried to pressure as much as possible until the end of the game."

Senior Rico Gathers
On reaching 1,000 career reboundsà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"It means a lot. One of my reasons for coming back my senior year was to seal my legacy here. Just being able to reach the 1,000 [points] and 1,000 [rebounds] milestone is a blessing. I never thought I would be able to reach that in my college career. I'm proud and thankful to God."

On facing Oklahoma Stateà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"That was probably the best perimeter defense we've played all year long, and if we play like that, then we continue that success. We'll be able to dominate the conference. We should have put them away early, but basketball is a game of runs. I'm glad we were able to take care of the ball in the last seven minutes, build a sustainable lead and close out the game."

Sophomore Al Freeman
On stepping into a bigger role when Prince and Gathers are slowed downà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"Any time you're on the road you want to get out to a fast start, and any time you're at home you want to get out to a fast start and let your presence be known and put pressure on your opponent. We wanted to do that tonight. We wanted to come out here and give our best effort and get our first conference win."

On teammate Rico Gathersà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"When you got Rico getting 17 [points] and 17 [rebounds], reaching 1,000 each, you've got to pay attention to him. He's getting double-teamed, triple-teamed, and then when the shot goes up they are sending four players to the glass, so when he gets the offensive rebound, he kicks it out. Wide open shots for all of us, so because of him being an anchor in the middle, it allows a lot of perimeter players to do what we do."

OKLAHOMA STATE POSTGAME QUOTES

Head Coach Travis Ford
On his team's rebounding tonightà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"I'm very disappointed to say the least. As I've told our team, we've proven we can rebound. It'd be different if we were getting killed every night on the glass and that were just a total weakness of our team, but that's not the case. We outrebounded Florida a couple games ago by five rebounds, and at that time they were the No. 5 rebounding team in the country. We outrebounded TCU who is a much bigger, and probably a little more physical team as far as how they play, by double digits for the majority of the night. Now, this was a different beast tonight. It's one thing to get out rebounded, but it's another thing to have these numbers."

On key points of tonight's gameà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"Four things. First thing, rebounding. It was not good. I was very proud of how we ran our offense the second half. I wouldn't change anything. Some of our shots just didn't go down. Second, we had some good looks that went all the way in and then popped out. Then, they'd go down and make a three. We cut the lead down to 3, then they go down and get an offensive rebound and (Terry) Maston puts it back in. That's the difference between winning and losing in this league. You could see that Baylor was ready to respond from their game this past Saturday. They played with a little chip on their shoulder. Third, free throws. They shot 24, we shot 14. We don't shoot ours very well, they shoot theirs great. Fourth, foul trouble hurt us a little bit. Hammonds didn't get to play very much in this game, and he would've been very good for us. He played 25 minutes, but we needed him in there a little bit more. Give Baylor credit - they sustained a pretty good run by us, and then had a great run by themselves. They're a very good basketball team that came ready to play."

On big men bench players not doing well on boards...
"I'm not happy, and they know it. It's just uncalled for. You can't blame it all on them though. The whole team plays a role in rebounding. Our guards are really our better rebounders, and they didn't get their rebounds tonight either. As I told our guys, don't be so prideful that you don't learn from how they did it so well. You need to learn from them. Rico Gathers and Taurean Prince, you need to learn from them and how they go about it. Let's take a look at ourselves in the mirror and say hey, that's how we need to be going about it. We can. We've shown it. We've done it."

Sophomore Jeffrey Carroll
On rebounding tonightà ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¦
"It was tough. They wanted it more than we did. We spent a lot of time this week doing practice drills and boxing out. We really focused on Rico and tried to control him, but it's just a matter of wanting it more and playing as hard as you can."

On Rico Gathers...
"I mean, I'm not a 5, so I don't really know what it's like to guard him. What I do know is I think I ran into him one time and almost fell right to the ground. He's a strong, physical dude, but he has that want to go get it. With a body like his combined with his want to dominate, you can't really stop a guy like that."