BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — WKU had 24 assists on 39 field goals and shot 58.2 percent from the field en route to a 105-84 win over Pikeville (Ky.) Monday night at E.A. Diddle Arena in the season’s only exhibition game.
All 11 players who played for WKU scored in the game, with four finishing in double figures. T.J. Price led all scorers with 23 points, and he also had eight assists in 34 minutes. Trency Jackson followed with 22 points, six assists and five rebounds while going 9-of-12 from the floor, and George Fant added 10 points, six rebounds and two blocked shots. Freshman Justin Johnson put together a double-double off the bench with 18 points and 10 rebounds, seven offensive, in 21 minutes.
Pikeville was led by Kenny Manigault’s 21 points and 11 rebounds. The Bears are ranked second in the nation in NAIA.
WKU rattled off a 7-0 run in the final 38 seconds of the half to open a 53-44 halftime advantage after shooting 61.8 percent as a team (21-for-34) and having assists on 14 of those baskets. Pikeville was equally impressive from the field, converting at a 50.0 percent clip (16-for-32) and making 8-of-16 shots from distance (.500).
A trio of starters were in double figures for WKU in the first 20 minutes, with Jackson leading the way with 12 points and Fant following with 10 points and six rebounds. T. Price had five assists to go along with 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting.
The Hilltoppers opened up a 16-point lead with five-and-a-half minutes elapsed in the second half and took a 78-57 lead with 10:49 to go, and Pikeville would get no closer than 14 points down the stretch.
WKU outrebounded the Bears 41-32 and had a 24-8 advantage on second-chance points.
WKU Basketball vs. Pikeville
Press Conference Quotes
Nov. 10, 2014
Head Coach Ray Harper
On the offensive and defensive aspects of the game
“105—if we can score that we’re going to win some games. I thought in the first half we had some switches that we were too late switching out. They basket-cut us a few times. We got a little lazy. Then on transition defense, we didn’t locate guys. For the first time out, Pikeville is a talented team. Macari Brooks played at DePaul and averaged 23 (points) a game last year in junior college. K.K. Simmons is pretty darn good. I think he had 30 against Kentucky. And then (Kenny) Manigault played at Wichita State. They don’t really have a true center, so it makes it difficult sometimes when we’re trying to match up. Alex (Rostov) was having to guard drivers. We just have to work on our rotations a little bit, be a little quicker. There are some bright spots and some areas we need work.”
On Justin Johnson
“He’s just one of those guys, he’s relentless. I think people are going to fall in love with him over the next four years. We felt like about this time last year that he was a key recruit for us and was all excited on the first day of signing when he signed. I think people got a glimpse tonight of why. We had some other young kids, Avery (Patterson) I thought he played well. He’s a tough, hard-nosed guy, very unselfish. I thought that was the biggest thing, our kids fed off each other playing unselfish, making the extra pass. It’s contagious. The first time out to have 24 assists is a good sign.”
On T.J. Price and Trency Jackson
“Again, I thought they were just very unselfish. Trency had six assists and no turnovers. T.J. had eight assists and two turnovers. Wow—I’ll take that. If we get that every night, we’re in business. I haven’t looked at the stat sheet, but just my eyes were telling me we were doing a good job of turning the good shots down for great shots. That’s what we’ve got to do on the offensive end. We have different guys that can score, and we need to continue to be unselfish and get better on the defensive end.”
On the team’s readiness for the beginning of the season
“They’ll be ready to not practice and hear me yell at them during practice. I think this time of year the kids are anxious to see a different opponent other than themselves. That’s why it was good tonight to play a team like Pikeville. Again, they’re talented and they pressed, pressured us and gave us different looks. That was good. So, we’ll see what happens Saturday afternoon.”
On the offensive efficiency starting with assists
“I think a lot. When I go back and look at the tape here in a little bit, I think I’m going to see us miss a lot of easy shots. Shots that, hopefully, going forward we’re going to make. We scored 105, but I feel like we should have scored 118. You think about some just wide open two-footers and wide open three-pointers. Again, I just like us playing unselfish. Shots aren’t always going to go down. We have to get better on the defensive end so that when those shots aren’t going down we can still win games. I didn’t think it was a lack of effort on the defensive end, I thought it was more some fundamentals like foot angles, maybe not jumping to the ball when we need to, but things that can be corrected easily.”
On Trency Jackson’s role on the offense
“He’s a guy that scores a lot of different ways. I’ve said from the beginning that I thought he probably had the best offseason of anyone on the team. I thought he just worked and got better. He really wanted to not be just an okay three-point shooter, but a good three-point shooter. He spent a lot of time in the gym working on it. I think you got a glimpse tonight of the dividends it’s going to pay over the course of the season. He’s going to make open shots if he gets open looks. With his ability to drive the ball, it makes him ultra-dangerous. You line him up with Chris (Harrison-Docks) and T.J. (Price), and that’s two other guys who can make shots. I was pleased.”
On the mismatch for Alex Rostov and Ben Lawson against Pikeville
“We knew that going in, we were looking at what different matchups we could use. Maybe Nigel (Snipes) at the forward, we played T.J. at the forward a little bit. We didn’t think it would affect Ben as much, he’s a little more agile. I thought he was better the last time he was in than he was early in the game. He’s just got to be aggressive. I thought he was a little more aggressive the last seven minutes that he played than he was earlier in the game.”
On D.J. Clayton not playing tonight
“We had 11 guys play double-figure minutes, we were running out. I told them that. (Ayinde) Sprewell is pretty darn good, too. I wasn’t going to put them in there with two and a half minutes to go. Who knows, may redshirt a guy. Especially if Nigel will play what we think he is capable of, we may play him at the three a lot. I just wasn’t going to put them in that late in the game, it didn’t make sense. I said to them, ‘Hey, there’s two and a half minutes left and I’ll put you in.’ I wouldn’t do it. Let these guys go ahead and finish this out. That’s the way it rolls.”
Senior Guard T.J. Price
On meshing pieces together in first game
“We played good, just not defensive wise. Defensive wise, we have to do better on our rotations and guard the ball one-on-one if we get put on an island. Collectively, we played pretty good. We saw a lot more good things than bad things.”
On individual play tonight
“I think I did okay. It was alright, I just have to hit the boards more. I didn’t have any offensive rebounds. That’s not a good thing, so that’s something I’ve got to do better.”
On spark of freshman Justin Johnson’s play off bench
“On the defensive end, he helped us on the boards a lot, and on the offensive end, he was always in the right spots. Even when he wasn’t in the right spots, he was still putting himself in the right spot to get the rebound if we missed. Most of the time he was in the right spot. We could dump the ball down, and he’s finishing every time. Even when he was getting fouled, he’s finishing for and-ones. He did great tonight. Double-double in his first game? That’s great. That’s what we need from the freshmen, to pick it up for us. He did that. We’re going to need that this year.”
On how close to being ready for opener
“We’re ready. We’ll just take this week, focus and just mainly focus on defense. I mean we put up 105 points tonight, so we aren’t really worried about the offensive side. We need to keep our turnovers down, but we did okay with that. We just need to focus on defense this week. Once we get our defense down, we’re going to be ready for all these trips and games coming up.”
Freshman Forward Justin Johnson
On hitting the boards
“It feels pretty good, but like T.J. (Price) said, I’ve got to hit the boards on defense. You should always have more defensive boards than offensive, so I’ve got to do a better job on defense getting some more boards there. We’ve got to hold teams to one possession on offense and get rebounds on the defensive end.”
On gelling with the team in first college game
“I came in, and I wanted to bring energy off the bench. Guys like T.J. and George (Fant), they make it easier to fit into the system. I had a couple of mishaps out there, but they just point me in the right direction. They helped me out a lot out there, so I appreciate having them out there on the court.”
On defensive stops leading to easy baskets being a theme for WKU
“It’s got to be. If we want to win, we have to hold teams to one possession, get outlets and run with that ball in transition. We definitely need to get stops in transition. They got a lot of easy buckets the same way in transition there, so we have to do a better job of getting back and finding guys. We’re going to push the ball, try to get boards and score. We’re going to put up a lot of points doing that. One of our goals is to rebound, outlet and go get a bucket.”
