Preston Early Quotes (24 Quotes)

She's going to look to score every time she touches it. She can shoot it, she's an aggressive driver and she can post up. She's really a triple-threat player.

This is a neat day for our program and an awesome opportunity for her. She was our quarterback and it all started with her.

Rogers has started learning what it's like to be a basketball town -- our community's been starved for it. The crowds have been there. They've really been a force for us. It's really been like an extra player.

I give our kids a lot of credit for coming up with that third quarter. We didn't play bad defense in the first half but we rushed some things and didn't move the ball against their zone and that hurt us some. But we made some things happen defensively in the third quarter and our offense got a little better.

I know, obviously, everybody loves a winner but there's a lot of positive energy right now in both programs. Our kids are tight with each other and it's really a special year. Obviously, we want to keep it going as long as we can. I think '06 has a chance to be one of those special years for the girls and the boys.

I love our kids. We kept urging them when were behind 'Don't let go, don't let go.' They kept fighting. Cabot was one play better than us but we'll always be able to live with the results because of the way we played in the fourth quarter.

Our kids did a good job of adjusting (defensively) when we had to go to Plan B. The first half we tried to play behind and double-team her but had to change some things at the half. We went back to what we normally do and that's pressuring the ball. She had a tougher time in the second half scoring. In the first half it was so easy.

It didn't matter that she was undersized. Her desire to perform and achieve were big.

They're a great defensive team and we struggled in the second quarter. They didn't win 26 games by mistake.

They have good players and their guards are as good as anybody's. Sandy always seems to get her kids to play hard. We never for a second underestimated then or thought they wouldn't be good. They'll be in the hunt for the playoffs.

We've put ourselves in a great position. We need to be confident about that and feel good about that. Now let's go attack some of these games and get it done.

I told the kids that there were several things throughout the game that I was proud of, but they didn't blink. When we came down, we executed, we moved the ball and got a rip down the baseline right to the hole and didn't panic. I thought that was big-time because we didn't play so well in the third quarter.

It's so critical for us to get our mind right before we practice Sunday. Our players are hurting. You can look in their eyes and see that they're hurting, and it should be like that if you really care. But by lunchtime Saturday it's got to be gone. We've got to have a great day of preparation (Sunday) and have the right attitude. We're going to break down everything that went wrong (Friday) and give it to 'em and then close the book.

Our kids are excited about next week but I don't think there's any chance our kids are looking past Bentonville. (Playing) anybody other than Bentonville, maybe they would.

If you'd told us we'd win 23 games at the start of this year, we'd take that every day. It's been a great year for our community and our school and it's been so much fun to be a part of it.

The position that she plays, I feel, is about relationships. Relationships with your coach and with your teammates and I think she's worked extremely hard in both of those areas. There is a lot of trust between us and with her and her teammates. And if everybody's playing well and we're as balanced as we are (offensively), that shows we have a good point guard.

To me, out-rebounding people that are bigger than you and running down long rebounds, that shows a real passion for the game. That's how I describe the way that she played it. She's just real passionate about making a difference.

We thought if we could finish some possessions with shots and scrap to keep them off the boards, we could get back into the game. We put together some scores and stops and things started to snowball for us.

We needed some more plays on offense and (to make) more foul shots.

We made some big shots when we had to have em. Their guards are really good and they put pressure on us and bothered us all night.

Tonight was the first time we haven't found a way to get it done in a game like this. Our margin for error has been very slim, but we've always found a way to get it done.

We wanna focus like a laser beam on these next six (games). We want to take care of our home games and find a way (to win) on the road and keep going after that state tournament berth. Thats what we set out to do.

That (start) is what excited me about em and made me proud of em. They approached the game the right way and they understand whats going on this time of year.

Our kids changed after that win. To beat that team, especially with the way we played the night before which we felt was pretty bad, it opened our eyes. We really took off from there.