March 4, 2001
SANTA CLARA HEAD COACH DICK DAVEY:
On the game... "I feel very fortunate, obviously David LaLazarian going down hurt their chances for a while, he was really hurting us or a while you have to take that into consideration, but at the same time I really appreciate the pride and the effort that our team put into the game in the second half. I really believe that they felt at half time that they weren't out of it. We kept verbalizing 'it's seven with seven minutes to go, it's one with four minutes to go, hang in there and good things can happen and to their credit they did and good things happened for us obviously."
SANTA CLARA GUARD STEVE ROSS:
On the foul that put Pepperdine's David LaLazarian out of the game... "When Kyle (Bailey) deflected the ball I reacted a split second late, David was already going to the ball. I really didn't see him and I just jumped up and tried to swipe at the ball. I guess I hit him on the way down and he hit his head on the ground and obviously that was a blow to their team be cause he was doing really well tonight."
SANTA CLARA GUARD BRIAN JONES:
On breaking an assist record held by former Bronco Steve Nash... "Steve is obviously a great player, he has been a great player for Dallas this year, and that is just another record. I'm not really interested in that, it's a nice personal accomplishment but I came to this school five years ago to get to the NCAA Tournament and I have a chance to do that tomorrow and that is what I'm trying to get my team focused on. The individual records don't really matter to me I'm trying to play in that tournament."
On thinking it was over in the first half... "Me personally not really. I knew it was going to be an up-hill battle, they were playing really well, they couldn't miss for a second there. If you stick together and play hard you can have a chance in the end to win."
On the game... "We didn't want our season to end tonight."
PEPPERDINE COACH JAN VAN BRENDA KOLFF:
On the game... "We didn't get the rebounds down the stretch and that's obviously where the ball game was."
On the NCAA Tournament... "Anything can happen. We just try to play one game at a time but unfortunately tonight hurt us."
PEPPERDINE FORWARD KELVIN GIBBS:
On David LaLazarian's injury... "That was a big point in the game when David went out. When he went out everything just dropped."