Terrence Brown, for one, was not amazed at the result.
"Yeah, we knew we were the underdog," said the 6-3, 190-pound Brown, a junior small forward, who contributed 22 points and seven rebounds. "But we also knew we were prepared and that we'd play hard. Do that and you always have a chance."
Although game time was set for 3:15, tipoff didn't occur until 3:44.
"We were all ready to play," Brown said, "then we had to just wait. We were just talking to kill time and we made sure to stay in front of the school, so the principal wouldn't get mad at us.
"We were getting no updates [on the bus]. Just when we were ready to hop into cars and go up there, that's when the bus showed right up. After the ride, we had a good amount of time to get dressed and warm up. They didn't rush us."
The referees certainly draaaagged things out, however. Fifty-six personals were whistled, and the game almost wound up damaging spectators' eyes as the teams combined to commit 41 turnovers and shoot 38-for-77 at the line.
In the third quarter, four Phoenix owned that many personals. Only Terrell Parker fouled out.
"As soon as you touched somebody, they called a foul," Brown said. "I saw what was happening early, and I wasn't putting my hands on anybody. I was trying to tell the other guys, but . . .
"It wasn't easy. At one point in the third quarter, after Khyree Wooten dunked, we were down by 12 and the crowd was going crazy. I didn't pay that no mind . . .
"I told myself, 'Just keep scoring.' I was tired. Just had to suck it up and keep playing hard. We kept coming back and I wound up telling everybody, 'Look at the scoreboard! We're only down five! We can win this!' . . . Yup, I'm a talkative guy."
Brown was quite the anti-brickster, going 5-for-6 from the floor and 12-for-15 at the line.
He said that great foul shooting "used to be common" for him, but that he'd struggled lately.
