Recap |  Box Score

Saint Louis head coach Brad Soderberg:

"It's important that we won this game, because a year ago if we would have struggled offensively and turned it over as much as we did we would not have won the game. And this year because of a very strong effort defensively by our guys, in particular Dwayne Polk and Kevin Lisch on Jamaal Tatum, we were able to hang in there despite not being very fluent on offense."

On the upcoming stretch of games: "I'm very happy that we are 2-1, as we have a very tough stretch coming up where we play four of five games on the road, and three of the four road games are against NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago. I was real nervous before the game because I knew this was important to get, either pretty or ugly, but we needed to get this win."

On the play of Ian Vouyoukas: "He is a big man and is relatively agile for a kid that big. As I've said a hundred times, he can score with either hand. What I have to help our team with now, is we are going to see him double-teamed all the time, and I have to find a way to 'X and O' us through that a little better so he doesn't get bottled up every game. We expect him to be our leading scorer and rebounder. We need him to shoulder the load so our guards can sit back and do their thing, and Ian wants to shoulder that load."

On focusing on defense: "That is how it will always be as long as I am a coach, that is how I was raised with the coaches I have worked with and the coaches I have played for."