MBB RETURNS TO ACTION WITH WIN OVER REGIS

November 11, 2003 | Men's Basketball

By: CUBuffs.com

Senior guard Michel Morandais scored a team-high 16 points and junior David Harrison added 15 and 11 rebounds leading the Colorado men's basketball team to a 72-61 exhibition home win over Regis, Tuesday night at the Coors Events Center.

It was the first exhibition game of the 2003-04 season for both schools.

The Buffs opened the game slowly, falling behind the Rangers by seven points in the first two minutes of play, but once the Buffs took the lead off a Morandais three pointer at 14:52, they never looked back.

“It was a great job by Regis,” head coach Ricardo Patton said. “We knew they would come in and fight us tooth and nail. The second half, I thought we came out and played a lot better. We calmed down and played better team ball on offense and defense. I thought when we ran the floor we got easy buckets and nice transitions. It's what we worked on in the off-season.”

Colorado held a 35-29 lead going into the break and would build their lead to 20 with 11:08 left in the game, but the Rangers whittled away at the lead in the closing minutes facing Colorado's bench players.

The Buffs, who returned four starters from last year's team, shot 44 percent from the floor, but just 27.3 percent beyond the arc.

Freshman Marcus Hall, a point guard out of Houston, Texas, saw his first action in a Colorado uniform. Hall played 21 minutes, racking up five assists, two steals, a block and four points.

The Buffs return to action at 7 p.m. Tuesday against the EA All-Stars at the Coors Events Center.

Clips from the post-game press conference follow:

Colorado Head Coach

GENERAL “It was a great job by Regis. We knew they would come in and fight us tooth and nail. The second half I thought we came out and played a lot better. We calmed down and played better team ball on offense and defense. I thought when we ran the floor we got easy buckets and nice transitions. It's what we worked on in the off-season. I thought Michel did a really nice job of rebounding and taking it to the basket.”

ON THE PLAY OF MARCUS HALL: “I thought he did a really good job of pushing the ball. But as a freshman he didn't make as good of decisions as he will. He'll figure it out as he goes along. Overall he did a good job.”

ON THE PLAY OF ANTOINE McGEE: “His experience showed. He took some ill-advised shots but we talked about it at halftime. We told him to be more creative and to not allow a defense to determine how you play.”

ON REGIS: “We get more out of a team as well coached as Regis. (Lonnie) Porter is the most winningest coach in Colorado. We get more out of playing a team like Regis then maybe a foreign team.”

ON THE STARTING FOUR MAN: “I think Lamar (Harris) or Chris Copeland should be the four man. It gives us more size, and Lamar can certainly rebound. Between Lamar, Glenn, and Copeland I think we can replace one (Stephane) Pelle.”

Regis Head Coach Lonnie Porter

GENERAL: “Well, I thought it was a pretty good game except up until about a 67-minute span. I thought we did pretty good. We didn't do much toward the end simply because Colorado's defense increased their intensity a lot, and we couldn't run our offense. I think that was a huge difference.”

ON PLAYING AGAINST DIVISION I TEAM- “It was only an exhibition game, but we look forward to it every year. It is a good experience for us. We don't get the chance to play people like David (Harrison), and (Michel) Morandais in our regular season schedule.”

ON DAVID HARRISON- “I think he has improved a lot (since we played him two years ago). He is growing by leaps and bounds every year. I think he needs to increase his arsenal, and dipping with his left shoulder. I also think he needs to work on baby jumper, because he will continue to be double and triple teamed by the opponent. I see very positive things for both him, and Michel (Morandais) for the future.