Feb. 1, 2011

Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery

Miami Head Coach Charlie Coles
On Miami's effort in the second half: "It was a tale of two halves. [The second half] might have been the best half we've played all year. We've put together some [good] halves. I don't know that we've put together a total game yet, but I am optimistic that one of these days we will. The second half was just marvelous. I don't think I've ever been prouder of our guys. They did it on their own. There was no great strategy. They did that on their own. I think the thing that frustrates me the most is when we don't play up to our ability, because I think we've got some good players."

On Josh Sewell's career-high 20-point performance: "Sewell's 20 points was probably most surprising because it's been a frustrating year for Josh. To play the game he played tonight, I wanted to get him in there early. That was no accident. When he hit his first shot, I thought 'OK, he scored two, that's a good night.' Little did I know it would be a 20-spot he would put up."

On Julian Mavunga's double-double: "When Julian plays to his ability, I think he shows all of us something new. And tonight, he rebounded and played very smart basketball. Every now and then my man Jules will get a little careless ââ'¬Â¦ but he played great."

Miami junior forward Julian Mavunga
On the changes made for the second half: "I personally kind of wanted to go crazy because I didn't think we were playing as hard as we could. We were in the locker room and talked about some things. For one, Coach Coles said they were shooting 62 percent from the field, so we knew it had to start with defense, we had to clamp down. We knew Ball State was a team that was coming off three losses and we just lost one too. They're a good team, why let them beat us? We just knew we had to come back out and fight harder. We really knew we had to defend."

On the play of Josh Sewell: "One thing that I can highlight is Jauwan Scaife, who had 18 points in the first half and we just really shut him down in the second half. Josh Sewell had the 20 points, but I also thought he was our best perimeter defender tonight [defending Scaife in the second half and limiting him to four points]."

On the meaning of the game for the rest of the season: "I feel like this is just the start. We know the season isn't over. We knew the season wasn't over when we lost the game on Saturday and we know the season isn't over now. This is just the start of things that are going to come, hopefully. We see what we are capable of. That's one thing we bring out of this game ââ'¬Â¦ this is just laying the foundation and hopefully we can build upon it."

Miami freshman forward/guard Josh Sewell
On his defense in the second half: "First and foremost, I just wanted to be consistent in the second half. I asked coach if I could guard Jauwan [Scaife] and he said yes. Defense is one thing I really take pride in."

On having to try to fill the role of Antonio Ballard: "I try to have the same intangibles that [Antonio Ballard] provided, as far as doing things that don't show up on the stat sheet. He's one of the hardest working guys I've ever seen, and every single shot we take, he always crashes the boards, so that's one thing I want to try to do. I really wasn't caught up in scoring the points. I told coach I'd prefer to get the rebounds. My goal was actually to get 10 rebounds because that's what Antonio Ballard does. I just try to bring the same work ethic [as Ballard] into every practice and carry it over to the games."