Everything the SMU players said after beating Syracuse 77-75

The SMU players enjoyed the comeback win over Syracuse. Especially senior Keon Ambrose-Hylton who delivered the late-game heroics for SMU.

Keon Ambrose-Hylton on what he saw on the final play: “Yeah, in my opinion, I think we were running a ball screen. So, when it comes to being involved with the guards, I think I’m really great at reading the position of where I should hit the screen, where I should roll. And what’s funny is at halftime, I told Boopie that what I basically understand is when he goes for layups, his layups tend to bounce on the rim and go up high, and you can go for an easy rebound. So the fact that happened in the last few minutes is kind of what I was trying to tell him. So, yeah, that’s pretty much how I saw it. I knew that it would be available. It felt good though. I thought there was less time on the clock when it happened, but it was good, you know, getting to end the season on a good note for not just me but also for our other seniors. So it was great.” 

Keon on if he purposely shot the ball or if he was just trying to tip it up: “No, no, no, I knew it. Once I got my hand in the ball, I knew for a fact it was going in. You can see my reaction.” [Matt Cross]: “Yeah, tell them.”

Kario Oquendo on not giving up and staying within striking distance: “It was one of those games that we just had to keep fighting. Regardless of when we were down by 10, 12, or whatever we were down, they came out and hit a lot of shots. They were playing hard, but at the end of the game, I feel like we really locked in and took it from them. So that’s what I saw.”

Matt Cross on if this win feels different because of the struggles: “Yeah, definitely. I think when you get any game where it comes down to the wire or when you’re down and you’ve got to gut it out, it’s much more satisfying. I don’t care if it’s a high school team down the street or if it’s their Duke or the number one team in the country or whoever it is. It’s just it’s a good feeling. All the teams we play are division one teams at the end of the day. It’s a really good league. Syracuse has a lot of close games and they’re a good team. So, I mean, we were really happy about that one. And like you said, when you come back from 12 and it feels like nothing we do is working or going in, it’s a much better feeling than just blowing a team up by 30 when you complete that win.” 

Kario and Keon on the importance of this game and the games to come: [Kario] “Personally, we just have to win. At this point, it might not always be pretty. You just got to go out there and just play as hard as you can, and you got to just win. At this point, we can’t lose anymore, so we just have to keep winning.” 

[Keon] “Yeah, at this point, we have a goal we’re trying to get to, and we’ve got to make sure that we start the game, play certain practices from when we’re preparing and when we’re scouting. So we make sure to take things to the highest levels. We come into the game playing hard, playing our game.”

Matt Cross on the toughness of the backcourt: “They always play well for us. I think it just shows that the pride that this team has, and specifically them, any time you get guys that play with injuries and play with sicknesses, it’s always good to see and it lifts you as a teammate and makes you want to play harder. I don’t even know what the stats are, but I think they did their job like they always do. And I’m just happy for the whole team, proud of the whole team.”

Keon on where his constant hunger and energy come from: “Loving basketball. These guys know that when I play basketball, I’m always happy, making jokes, smiling, enjoying my time. Whether we’re going through adversity or just having fun, they know I’m always going to be playful and fun. But at the end of the day, I’m going to play hard and they know I’m very vocal on defense and on offense because I’ve been here for a while, so I know the kind of concept of the game and little things like that. So it makes it more fun, especially for me, to talk to my teammates and encourage them to play hard, it makes me play harder.” 

On if it was surprising that Chuck came back into the game after his injury: [In unison] “No.” [Matt Cross] “He’s a tough kid and there is too much at stake. Get back in there.” 

Kario on the impact the senior leadership has in tough moments, including this game: “Like you said, we have a lot of older guys and I think that helps us out a lot. Matt and I, we talk about it a lot, like having older guys that can get you in a situation where, like you said, down by 12 with 10. And like I said, we’ve seen it all, played a lot of games between the three of us. So it’s just one of those things, and it’s just hard to put it in a mindset. You just gotta play hard and keep going.” 

Matt on how to navigate the emotions of the tricky game against FSU coming up: “I feel like this game in itself is going to help with that. We came up on the wrong side of a lot of games that got physical and sloppy. And when we got down 12 [in other games], we didn’t always come back from that lead. So finally getting one where we go down and coming back going into playoff time. I think it’s huge for us to see one of those games be on the right side. So we know we can do that. [A comeback win] was kind of one of the last steps for us you know because when we when we’re winning and everything’s going right you know like anybody else like we can we can get rolling on offense like pretty quickly on teams so you know those days were not everything’s falling and kind of gutting it out and getting one finally like we did today I think that’s going to be the biggest thing to help us you know with our confidence that much more going into that game and just March in general.”