What Tommy Lloyd, Benn Mathurin and Kerr Kriisa said after Arizona’s win over Oregon State

The Arizona Wildcats opened Pac-12 play Sunday with a dominant 90-65 win over Oregon State at Gill Coliseum. Our game recap can be found here.

After the game, Tommy Lloyd, Benn Mathurin and Kerr Kriisa spoke about the team’s win, Mathurin’s prolific performance and more.

Lloyd on his overall impressions from the win: “I think Oregon State has some talent. They’re just trying to find themselves right now. It’s our first time being on the road. We played one game basically in the last two weeks. So maybe it took us a little bit to get our feet underneath us, but I’m really proud of how our bench came in and changed the game, pressuring defensively and making some things happen.”

Lloyd on Arizona overcoming an early deficit: “You want to come out and you want to test the waters a little bit. See how a team handles pressure and our guys are kind of buying into that right now. And I thought (we) kind of put Oregon State on their heels a little bit and we were able to make some plays and kind of flip it on them.”

Kriisa on Arizona starting off slow: “In the beginning, I think if everybody watched the game it was a little bit (off). We didn’t start off as good as we usually do. So you can tell that maybe the first real road game, everything’s a little bit different with fans and everything. I think in the beginning it was a little bit shaky but once the bench got in, bench really got us going. And then from there on we never looked back.”

Mathurin on the team overcoming a slow start: “We just knew that we had a good preparation about the game. We felt pretty good. Like Kerr said, it was a tough game but we made adjustments. The whole team knew what we were doing. Just make good plays.”

Kriisa on what contributed to the early mistakes offensively: “I think when they put the zone up in the beginning, then we just started to look around. Even though we were prepared, we didn’t really attack the zone like we practiced it. Once the game went on, we felt more comfortable and that got us going.”

Lloyd on forcing Oregon State into 22 turnovers: “I don’t know if I envision stats going into the game, but I definitely knew we wanted to pressure them and force them to make tough plays in tight windows. Our guys did a good job of that.”

Lloyd on what contributed to Mathurin’s offensive outburst: “They were playing a lot of zone. The first thing that really got Benn going was the offensive rebounding. That’s something he and I have been talking about. Making plays in the effort areas and not just hunting jump shots. Then he hunted some good threes and our guys found him in that zone. The corners were pretty wide open and he hit some timely ones and then we got going in transition a little bit. He should be a great offensive rebounder, he’s a great spot up three point shooter and he’s great in transition. It’s a heck of a combination.”

Mathurin on his hot hand in Corvallis (he scored 31 at Gill last year): “To be honest I’m from Canada and Corvallis is pretty much the same as Canada so I’ll just say it’s the weather.”