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Athens, GA (Mar 21, 2009) - Siena College, from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) defeated The Ohio State University last night in double overtime by a score of 74-72. This is the transcript of the Siena College post-game press conference as provided by the NCAA and ASAP Sports.

THE MODERATOR: Joining us this evening are student athletes Ryan
Rossiter, Ronald Moore and Kenny Hasbrouck. Coach, an opening
statement, please.

COACH McCAFFERY: I want to begin by congratulating Ohio State on an
unbelievably hard fought game and a great season. I thought Thad did a
phenomenal job getting them ready for this game. Obviously it took
everything we had. I felt we obviously struggled shooting the
basketball in the first half. But I thought defensively it's about as
well as we played all year.

We rebounded the ball and defended them and got after their key
personnel, and it kept us in it. They were ahead most of the game, but
they never got away from us because of how hard we played defensively
and it's just a credit to the character of our team.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student athletes only.

Q. Ronald, could you talk about the two 3 pointers, the one at the
end of the first overtime and then the one to win it, what was set up
on both those plays?

RONALD MOORE: It wasn't really nothing set up specifically. Really,
just wanted to drive the ball and find an opening, and I felt as
though that even though I was off I was still going to take the shot,
and I was open and they went in for me.

COACH McCAFFERY: Actually, we had something set up. It broke down.
They defended perfectly what we had set up. And Ronald made the
decision, because he was to deliver the ball to one of the two people
who were covered. So then he had to make a play. So it was a great
play by him. But we had something set up.

Q. Ryan, could you talk about how you were able to really establish
some dominance on the boards when a lot of the talk going in was the
fact that Ohio State was bigger?

RYAN ROSSITER: I mean, I knew we were going to have a shot to get a
lot of offensive rebounds tonight. And Alex played great and all our
guys crashed the glass and it wasn't keying on one guy. It was a lot
of tipped rebounds we were able to get, and getting inside position on
their bigs was helpful and also box them in and get those rebounds.

Q. Kenny, did it flash through your mind at all during the game that
this could possibly be your last game, or were you just sort of
wrapped up in the moment?

KENNY HASBROUCK: Yeah, I thought about it a couple times. I said,
"This can't be it." We've worked so hard last couple of years, and
just to end on this note, I think it would have been horrible. And we
just kept battling and nobody wanted it to end, even though like me
and Josh are the only seniors, but nobody wanted the season to be
over.

Q. Ronald, you said you were off, you missed your first four 3
pointers. While Kenny was out playing a good game, he hit the big 3
pointer at the end of regulation, you guys just keep shooting it even
when you're off, where does the confidence come from? Where do you
draw from that?

RONALD MOORE: Coach does a good job having us go through situations
and practices. We practiced in situations like this and been in
situations like this fighting back. Goes to show how much heart that
we got, 1 through 5 and even guys on the bench. Even when shots, balls
wasn't falling and things weren't going our way, we always try to stay
positive and that's what we did.

Q. Kenny, I think you had the guard on Evan Turner on the last play
of the game. Can you walk us through that?

KENNY HASBROUCK: I was trying my hardest not to foul him. He's an
attack guy. I thought he was going to try to spin but he tried to fake
it and he pulled up for a jump, and I prayed he missed. I was praying
basically the whole game. That shot I was pleased it didn't go in
because I couldn't go into another overtime. He missed it. And I want
everybody to note that we messed up Obama's bracket, and I'm a DC
native, so I'm kind of upset he did pick Ohio State over us.
(Laughter).

Q. Ryan, how much did the early season, out of conference games help
prepare you for this and last year's tournament experience?

RYAN ROSSITER: I think last year's tournament experience really
helped. We only lost one player from that roster and we've all been
here, and Coach does a good job putting us in tough situations. We
played at Kansas and this was a home game for Ohio State, we knew it
was going to be a crazy environment and the fans would be crazy, and
we kept our composure. It's something we've done all year and it's a
credit to coach keeping us controlled.

Q. After trailing pretty much all of regulation, how big was it to
get the lead for both of the overtimes?

KENNY HASBROUCK: It was a relief. We were working so hard to get it.
We tied a couple times but we couldn't get the lead for anything. We
finally got it. And honestly I thought I messed the game up because I
went in for the reach and Diebler hit another 3, and we kept battling
even though they got the lead right back, it was like a relief and it
gave us so much energy when we finally got that lead, and ever since
that point we just refused to give it up.

Q. What are you guys going to have to do to recover from this and
get ready for Sunday?

RONALD MOORE: Definitely rest. A lot of fluids. Stretch. Mainly just
resting up, getting some sleep. We've got Louisville on Sunday.
Definitely a tough opponent. We know Coach is going to get us ready
for it. Even though we've only got a day, we have to buckle down and
focus on personnel for them.

Q. Kenny, Ryan had mentioned that it was almost like a home game for
Ohio State. Did it feel like you guys were playing on the road?

KENNY HASBROUCK: It felt like we were playing on the road, but at
the same time we had a ton of fans here. They outnumbered, doubled or
tripled us, whatever they did. Our fans were loud the whole game.
Every time we made a shot they went crazy. We were playing real good
defense. We didn't let Ohio State's crowd really get involved in the
game. That was a credit to the team, and we just knew how it is in
these type of atmospheres, and we worked against it and we played
great defense, so it didn't really feel like it at the end of the
game.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, guys. Questions for Coach.

Q. Coach, was there a concern over the course of the game that the
tempo seemed to be to the liking of Ohio State, that it felt like a
Big Ten game, there was grinding?

COACH McCAFFERY: We were pushing the ball. We were attacking the rim
on makes and misses. We were not having as much success as we do a lot
of the times. You've seen us play a lot.

I think they had prepared to get their defense back and get into the
matchup. The other thing is when a team plays a matchup zone, there's
going to be longer possessions. There has to be.

If we come down and quick shoot the ball against a matchup zone,
we're going to lose by 25. And that's the other reason why the
rebounding numbers are what they are. Their bigs are flying to the
corner. They're overloaded when we run shooters and overload a side,
Lauderdale is going to be flying his shooter in the corner or playing
his shooter in the corner and they're going to be all stretched out.

So you pick your poison. If you play the matchup, they held us to a
low number percentage wise and they got after our really good shooters
and held them below their normal percentages.

But then you give up offensive rebounding opportunities. And we're
athletic and we're powerful and we go get it. And we recognize that we
had to continue to do that based on the way we were shooting the
basketball.

Q. I don't know if you had a chance to really look at the box score,
but there are a lot of numbers on there that probably say we should
have lost this game. The turnovers, the shooting percentage. You
mentioned the offensive rebounding, was there something maybe not as
obvious, you think, that tipped the scales in the final balance?

COACH McCAFFERY: I think continuing to play the kind of defense that
we played kept us close enough. I really think once we got the lead
and once we established that we were going to be right there, I think
it was harder for them. They were sort of playing not to lose, it
seemed like. Because it seemed like they had the game won a couple
times.

But I think our 1 2 2 defense gave them some problems. And I think
the zone bothered them. It limited Turner's space. You play a lot of
man to man against him. He can carve you up all by himself. And when
we were in the zone I thought we did a good job on Diebler in
particular.

So you look at Diebler's numbers, and Turner was great, but we did
limit him. And we outrebounded them. So you look at our shooting
numbers and you say how did we win, you look at turnover numbers.
They're very uncharacteristic for us. I think the way the game
unfolded was part of the reason why Ohio State struggled the way they
did offensively down the stretch.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.