Quotable: Another tough loss for WSU

COUGARS

FROM PULLMAN — We have a few more quotes to pass along from Washington State's 58-49 loss to Colorado on Saturday. Read on.

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KEN BONE

(On the offense) “We didn’t help the situation at all. We didn’t exdtuce very well, especially that last two minutes. I know we were frustrated with the fcat that we were not scoring very well, had a hard time getting good shots. … I think the frustration got the best of us that last couple minutes but the game was won probably earlier than that. We had opportunites. We did not play very well offensively.”

(On shot selection) “I thought our shot selection was pretty good. We were moving it and getting pretty good shots. Down the stretch, Mike Ladd had a nice little jumper on the baseline, Dexter (Kernich-Drew) had one that didn’t go in. All in all we did not execute well and we need to be able to execute better than that to create good shots.”

(On the free-throw disparity) “I’m not sure what the case was. It is disappointing they shoot 24 free throws to our nine. Maybe it’s just that — they’re more aggressive and they do a great job of not fouling and we’re not aggressive and we do foul.”

(On Brock Motum being limited again) “It’s a concern when he doesn’t score well. It’ll be a concern when he doesn’t shoot well. We need him to. He’s our best scorer so it helps a lot if he’s able to score and if he’s scoring efficiently. When you take 16 shots and end up with 13 points, (that) is not very efficient. A lot of that goes to Colorado. Right at the beginning we had opportunities to get it to him, we got it to him and he was crowded immediately.”

MIKE LADD

“I feel like we just gave poor effort at the end down the stretch. We need to be more aggressive and we should have defended pretty well. But we didn’t.”

(On the late-game collapses) “I feel like that’s fixable, something we’re working on. I feel like it all starts in practice, getting after it and getting better.”

ROYCE WOOLRIDGE

(On scoring early in the second half) “I just felt like in the first half, I was a little timid and I felt like I’m going to come out in the second half and just be a little more aggressive. … Second half I just came in with more of an aggressive mindset.”

(On the halftime message) “Basically what we said was just to keep shooting and attack the basket a little bit more because if our shots aren’t going, we might as well go to the basket and get fouled.”

(On fatigue playing a factor) “It was a physical game and they like to run in transition, so I wouldn’t say that we were tired …I don’t think fatigue is even an excuse or anything that has to do with it.”

BROCK MOTUM

(How can they improve on late-game defense) “I think just repetitions in practice, some of the situational play we do where we’re down by two or whatever… I think mainly it’s just mental focus at the end of the game.”

(On Colorado's play late) “You’ve got to give credit to them. They executed really well down the stretch. They had their plays, they ran them and they hit their shots.”

(On how he would evaluate the offense) “I’d say we have a lot of room for improvement. We rep it all the time in practice, defenses throw us different things so we need to adjust better, but there’s definitely a lot of room for improvement. Not in the big scheme of things, but just minute details. Once we get that figured  out the rest will sort of flow.”