PURNELL: Discusses Loss to Wake

CLEMSON - Clemson head coach Oliver Purnell talks about his team's 78-68 loss to No. 3 Wake Forest.

Listen to Audio (8:09)

Opening Comments: “I saw two big things in this game, first of all, Wake is a very good basketball team. Secondly, we are a good team that did not play well. We did not have a good shooting percentage and should have made more second chance shots. We had a lot of rebounds, but did not capitalize on them and we needed to. I thought we played best when the pace was frantic, and they played better when the tempo was slower and they were able to penetrate. Their size definitely bothered us, and Teague is a great player who made some big plays down the stretch. We just didn’t play well in the last six minutes.”

On Team’s performance: “I think we are a good team, but we just didn’t play great against a good team. If you don’t play well, then you are going to have a tough time winning in this conference.”

On Misses Inside: “The size definitely bothers you and then you have to capitalize in other areas such as making free throws and not turning the ball over. We went to the offensive glass with quickness, but then couldn’t get those shots to go.”

On Point Guard Play: “I look at two things, first did we win and then how they handle the ball down the stretch. They just didn’t handle the game well.”

On McFarland on Booker: “Booker wasn’t posting up in the first half, he was just floating. Not to say McFarland didn’t do a good job, but we weren’t going inside like we should.”

On what to take from the game: “We are a good team that didn’t play well and didn’t stick to the plan. We haven’t had a loss to learn from yet this season, and sometimes they listen better after a loss then wins.”

On Last Six minutes of first half: “We missed easy shots and didn’t react well on defense. They weren’t necessarily explosive today and we should have taken advantage of that. A game can be won going into and coming out of the half and we didn’t play well in either of those situations.”