MILWAUKEE – South Carolina State Coach Ben Betts Jr. said his club learned an important lesson in losing to Mississippi in the first round of the Black Coaches Association Classic.
‘Against Ole Miss, we stopped executing. It showed us we can’t play just thirty minutes. We need to go out and play hard for forty minutes,’ Betts said Tuesday after his club beat South Carolina State 63-43. It was the team’s second straight victory after their opening 64-52 loss to Mississippi Sunday.
Betts said by playing hard throughout its last two games, his Bulldogs were able to emerge with a 2-1 record and fifth place in the tournament, which saw eight teams play games three days in a row.
Penn State Coach Ed DeChellis said the Bulldogs won because they played harder.
‘In this kind of game you can kind of forget about offense and defense, it’s all about effort,’ he said. ‘My hat is off to South Carolina State. They obviously wanted to win the game more than we did.’
DeChellis said the team was out of synch and ‘played as bad as we could possibly play.’