Sometimes you fight back like that and it takes all your energy. We needed to play better defense in the first half.

We definitely draw off our defense, and when we play good team defense we get energy.

When we play defense with that kind of energy, we're as good a team as I've ever seen.

We were geared up. We played with a lot of emotion and energy, and our defense was outstanding. Once we saw we could get a game from them, we just grew more and more confident as the night went on. Playing against a top conference opponent inspired us, and this game showed to me that we can be a force in the conference this year.

The thing I like about Martin's play was his defense. I thought with his four steals and his very good defense, particularly in that stretch where we went on that late run, was very important. Martin is a pleasing guy and he wants to please everybody. He had people here and he's from here and my guess is he pleased them all.

Escondido was just shredding our zone, so Al suggested we play man-to-man defense and get after it.