Clemson vs. High Point quotes

Clemson Head Coach Brad Brownell

Opening statement:

“It was a little of a harder fought win than we would’ve liked down the stretch, but I thought our guys played with good offensive confidence. It was really good to see Jaron (Blossomgame) play the way that he did in the second half…I thought he was outstanding offensively. Defensively, we played like a team with a 15-point lead and didn’t lock in defensively in the second half like we needed. College basketball is a different game now. There are just so many more players that can make threes on the floor, that at some point, someone is going to make a couple in a row, and the momentum of the game changes. Thankfully for us, we were able to get some stops late when we needed it, but I thought High Point showed some very good determination tonight. We knew we would face some zone, but I don’t think we thought we were going to play against 40 minutes of zone. So they had a good plan and gave us a good game…a little bit of a nailbiter there in the last few minutes.”

On Shelton Mitchell’s debut:

“It was good to have him back. He certainly isn’t where he was pre-injury, but he had two assists and no turnovers. He’s a smart player, a heady guy who knows how to play. He plays with great confidence. We really need more of that…another experienced backcourt guy. He’ll keep working. There’s some things he has to do to get better, but it’s good to get a couple of things on tape for him to see, and also to play in a game. He hasn’t been in a game in a long time. You need some of that…there’s very few guys that just go into those situations and don’t think about things. Certainly, I think him getting a few minutes is good, but he’ll be a much better player in another month or two.”

On Avry Holmes’ performance:

“I thought he made a big shot and a couple of big defensive plays. I’m just glad that he’s confident and that there was no hesitation. We’ve got a lot of confidence in Avry. He’s made a lot of big shots. By and large, he’s shooting the ball well, and that was a big three that he hit late in the second half.”

On getting a win after starting 2-2:

“One of the things I told our team when we were 2-2 was that we were 2-2 against some pretty good opponents. We have some pretty good wins, and we’ve lost some games against some teams full of good athletes and good coaches. We’ve really been able to find out a lot about ourselves after four games. We have some warts that need attention. But we also have some things that we do well. There are some teams out there that are 5-0 or 5-1 that haven’t been exposed to some of the things that we’re going to be exposed to over the next month, so we have a chance to rectify some of those problems. Our job as coaches and players is to get on with that, and hopefully we’ve started it. We’ve had a very difficult last week, and the last couple of days, we’ve really practiced hard.”

High Point Head Coach Scott Cherry

Opening statement:“I’m proud of our effort. We came off a loss last Sunday that wasn’t very pretty. And then the last time we played an ACC opponent, Virginia Tech, we hit about a 10-11 minute stretch where we were really bad. This is a young team.. a team of returners that’s now expected to be “the guys,” and so we are still in the learning process. But I was really proud of their effort, staying together, and fighting all the way through to the end. A couple plays here and there, you never know, we could have cut it to two or three and made them a little bit tighter, but give them credit. (Jaron) Blossomgame.. he’s a problem and a heck of a player. They did the things they needed to win, but I’m really proud of our guys and their effort and the way they played to try to give themselves a chance.”

On Andre Fox’s confidence level:“He’s been playing like that from the beginning of the season. He played like that against Virginia Tech as well. So he’s a confident kid to begin with, and all these games are only going to help him get better and better as the year goes on. We knew he was going to be pretty good. He played behind a couple veteran guards last year so he didn’t get as good of an opportunity. But now he’s taking advantage of the spot that opened up for him. I’m glad to have him. Again, just trying to get these guys to learn. There were certain possessions where my freshman point guard pushed it a little bit too much, got into traffic, and turned it over. They went down and dunked it and turned momentum the other direction, and we had it to four or six points, whatever it was. (Andre) Fox had a good look at a three and they called a travel, and I’ll have to look at that one. I want to make sure that was a walk. But we had a couple of opportunities there, and we just weren’t able to capitalize. We have just got to learn and keep getting better and take this game and build from it.”