Postgame Quotes: OSU vs Central Arkansas

Oklahoma State Head Coach Mike Boynton
On the team's defensive performance:
"We didn't have the same focus defensively. It's just another sign of immaturity. I don't want to go back to experience because you don't have to be experienced to be mature. It doesn't take experience to know that the game is still going on. You have to play a certain way and have a certain aggression about yourself. We got pretty passive defensively and that led to some pretty easy baskets. On offense the difference was today we went to free throw line and a couple of shots went down when we needed them to, so that was able to keep us in margin."

On the upcoming break:
"I'm not naive, I talk about things in a pretty open fashion. I tried to warn about that over the past couple games. You can't go home until the game is over. The game is definitely in the way of going home. It is certainly better to win today than to not play well and have a loss. We have seen that with teams even in our league across the country. Heading into this break stubbing their toe at home against a team they were supposed to win against heading into this break. This is a team that we are supposed to win against. I was very pleased to come away with the win. You either get it in the win column or the loss column. It was really important that we got the win under our belts so they can believe. We talked about in the pregame, sometimes it just takes winning a game no matter how you win it to feel like okay we are good. The first year we were 0-6 going to Lubbock we win a game and the guys feel like they are invincible again. They need to get away, clear their minds, spend time with their families and come back with a hunger and desire to win again."

OSU Junior Curtis Jones
On his first game in Gallagher-Iba Arena:
"It felt great. I've been practicing in here for a long time, so to get the chance to play in Gallagher was fun."

On the Cowboys' strong finish in the first half:
"I think it was pretty big to go into the locker room with confidence so that when we came back out in the second half we were feeling it a little bit."

On his mindset entering today's game:
"I was just trying to get the win with us being so close to Big 12 play. (I'm) just trying to get ready, trying to mesh well with the team."

OSU Junior Lindy Waters
On Curtis Jones' career day:
"He comes in an works hard every single day. He can shoot the ball - he can shoot the lights out - and he brings a whole other dimension to our team and just having him out there with us, it's great to see him succeed."

On the Cowboys' ability to find good shots against Central Arkansas:
"There were great looks. We were moving the ball, getting the ball into the paint and making the extra pass."

On the victory over Central Arkansas:
"We still have a lot of improvements that we need to make. We have to take care of the ball better, rebound the ball better. We never take a win for granted. Whether it's an ugly win or a pretty win, we don't take it for granted."

Central Arkansas Head Coach Russ Pennell
On his team's performance:
"The thing I wanted to get out of this game was the fight -- I wanted us to fight until the end. We had a bad lapse in the last two minutes of the first half that put us in a hole. You look at that three they hit right before the half, it loomed pretty big when we cut it to five and to three (in the second half). We've got to learn to play both halves like it's the end of the game. That was a little bit discouraging, but the challenge was to play the second half with everything we had. I thought we did that. I thought we really competed hard; we didn't give in. That's what you have to do to be a really good team. You have to be relentless with your effort and I thought, today, that we were."

On Hayden Koval:
"Hayden doesn't know how good he can be. One of the referees in this game, a Final Four ref, he ran by our bench and he said, 'That Koval kid is a pro.' I said, 'I think he is too.' Then he said, 'He is really good. (The officials) talked about him at halftime and were impressed with him.' To hear a referee say that, and a referee I respect, is really good. I think he's starting to figure it out and I think his teammates are starting to figure out how that he's pretty special too. We've got to get him the ball more, on the block more. He's just starting to be able to handle that. I think he's really found himself in these last three games."

On Deandre Jones:
"I think he needs some time off. We've played him a lot of minutes. The schemes that (opponents) have done to him, I don't think we'll see in the Southland Conference. We don't run into very many 6 foot 3 inch, 210 pound point guards in that league. We've got to help him too; we probably play him too many minutes, but he's a competitor and a battler and he'll bounce back, I have no doubt about that."

On getting to see former Cowboy head coach Eddie Sutton:
"Happy and sad at the same time. I've learned so many lessons from him. I've been out on this court and watched him work. I told him, 'Every day I use something you gave me. I wish I was as good at it as you were. Everything we do is something that you've instilled in my life.'"

Oklahoma State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Curtis Jones

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