Post-Game Quotes Following White Oak’s 56-54 State Championship Win Over Brock

White Oak coach Ron Boyett

• On winning back-to-back state championships: "It's pretty surreal. It's something that you don't ever dream of. I just think of so many coaches that work every day hard just like we do and they never get the opportunity to win one. We're just extremely blessed. We've got some talented players. He's given them the gift and talent and they've chosen to use it. Two years back-to-back, I don't know, it just hasn't hit me. It's just something I've never thought of before. I know they've earned it. They've done things the right way. They're a humble group of young men. They're very thankful for the blessing that they've had. Again, just to God be the glory."
• On where the 2013 stacks up against White Oak teams past: "We've had some good teams and each team sets out and they're gonna play the best they can. There have been times when we played as best we could play and we didn't make the playoffs, but that's the best we could do, and that's what I ask them. These three kids are talented. You just want to maximize your talent every year. I'm not gonna compare them. Obviously you can look at their resume and they've played pretty darn good the last two years."
• On his team's play when point guard Kris Anderson left the game halfway through the second quarter with two fouls: "At halftime that's exactly what we tried to point out. That's probably the longest stretch in the playoffs we've played without Kris. If we play somebody that's pretty good, Kris plays a lot. One thing about him is he's got a lot of stamina and he's a tough kid and he wants to play 32 minutes. The best thing about the first half is that the kids that we needed to step up did, and it rested Kris. He played a lot yesterday and he plays a lot all the time. I think the rest that he got helped us some in the second half. There's no doubt that was a crucial stretch and it's by far I think the best we've played all year when he was on the bench. When you get to this point you've gotta step up and do that. I thought Cass Carr when he came in for (Anderson), he gave us valuable minutes, particularly on defense. He played tough. He was solid. Slade the same way. We just kept plugging away. Same with Levi. A lot of times when Levi goes outta the game we have a hard time rebounding the ball, and we held in there with Hayden and JB. Josh Benson has had two great games yesterday and today. He's a kid that comes off the bench and is extremely unselfish. He just does whatever we've gotta have him to do. Those were crucial stretches with both of them. It was a total team effort."
• On the decision to stall the final minute and allow Anderson to go to work for a potential game-winning play: "That's what we were gonna do. I felt with our style of defense and Kris with the ball, that they wouldn't come out and challenge him. If you do that your'e gambling a little bit. I felt like they would try to play solid defense because that's what they do. They're extremely good on defense. The thing about the lane opening up is we've got some kids that can shoot the ball, and that helps Kris when we run that play. Skylar had a guy right in his face the whole night. LIke we tell them with our spread offense, 'If he's out there on you like that, you're doing your job.' Because there's not many people that are gonna stay in front of Kris 1-on-1 by themselves. We just take what you give us. God has gifted (Kris) with some talent, and he can play and he's dribbled that ball a thousand hours and it pays off. He's worked his tail off to get to that point. If you're gonna make the play, you've gotta have some kids that can make plays, and these three can make plays."
• On his decision to play for the last shot: “We wanted to make sure we got the last shot. Worst-case scenario, shoot and miss and play a little more. I felt pretty good that when we got to about eight seconds and gave Kris the ball and spread everybody else out, something good was going to happen. We’ve done that a few times this year and the result is normally pretty positive. We put the ball in his hands. He’s a four-year letterman and we trust the decision he’s gonna make, and fortunately it went our way tonight.”
• On junior guard Slade Sutton's 45-foot three-pointer that gave White Oak a 45-41 lead going to the fourth: “We’ve been practicing that 45-footer and it finally paid off. I don’t know what’s taken him so long to hit that thing. Slade’s a little bitty toot, but I”m gonna tell you, he’s a competitor. There’s some fire in that little sucker there. He doesn’t get scared. The stage doesn’t scare him. The moment doesn’t scare him. He wants the ball. You give it to him, he’s gonna let it fly, and kinda like his big brother over here, there’s a pretty good chance it’s gonna go in.”
• On Sutton brothers Skylar (senior) and Slade (junior) hitting 8 of 12 three-point attempts and recovering from Friday's 1-for-14 three-point performance in the state semifinal win over Winnie East Chambers: “The best thing about 1-for-14 yesterday was I felt darn good after because I knew it wasn’t going to happen again today. To see those two kids shoot every day in practice, I know how much work they’ve done on it, and I promise you, when they hoist it, I feel like it’s going in. … I knew they’d bring it today. Besides their points, Skylar played his butt off on defense today. That’s where we’re gonna play first every time. When he does that, usually the offense takes care of itself.”

White Oak senior point guard Kris Anderson

• On his thought process during the play that set up his game-winning shot: "When coach called spread, I just knew I could to get to the hole. I was gonna take what the defense gave me. If they stepped up, I would've dumped it (to a teammate). ... We ran 5, and that’s where we stall and get the last shot. We’ve been doing that for a long time, so I felt comfortable. When it got down to 8 (seconds), I just took what the defense gave me, and I’ve been doing that all year.”

White Oak senior shooting guard Skylar Sutton

• On winning back-to-back state championships: "I always dreamed of winning one, but two, I just didn't really think about that. Like coach Boyett said, thousands of other coaches and players have had the same dream as us, but God has blessed us to have some successful years here, and for that we're thankful."

White Oak senior forward Levi Yancy

• On winning back-to-back state championships: "First off, just thank God for the opportunity to be here. We had it planned that after winning one last year, let's go get a second one. We just knew in the summer and offseason, we had to be tough enough to keep pushing and just get better every week. You can't end it any better than that, and we're thankful for that."
• On his approach to the Saturday's game, which he finished with four points, 12 rebounds, and three blocks: "If your'e not scoring points you've just got to keep believing in yourself and keep pushing through."
• On his teammates picking up the slack when he and Anderson were on the bench during different stretches: "Slade is just like Skylar. Just clutch. Can knock down threes like crazy. He just seems like he never gets rattled. hayden has done so much work. I've seen him make so much progress since his sophomore year to his junior year. He never misses shots around the basket. The people off the bench and Josh Benson, huge stepping up. When Slade was starting instead of Josh, Josh wasn't selfish or anything like that. He was just ready to be a part of the team and help out."
• On the state he, Anderson, and Skylar Sutton are leaving White Oak's programs as graduating seniors: "I feel pretty good about that. Those guys are still hungry is the crazy thing. Gabe Michael, Josh Benson, Hayden and Slade and Tanner Sharp, they're saying things like 'three-peat' and everything like that. I think they're hungry for sure."

Brock coach Jeff Bell

• On the final play when senior guard Tre Ewell slipped and fell: "We had two or three different options. … We set a screen for (Ewell) on the side, and we were actually trying to set a staggered screen for one of our other shooters on the other side to get him the ball, but we just slipped and fell so we didn't get anything."
• On his team's defensive approach toward Yancy: “We were trying to push (Yancy) off the block. We’re not overly big. We knew it was going to be a physical game and we don’t mind that at all. He’s just so long for us, so we were just trying to get up in him and get him off the block as much as possible.”