Dempsey's up later.

Impressed with the play of Trinity Fields (12 points off the bench)?

I thought Trinity really let the game come to him. He didn’t go in there and try to do something right away. He kind of got in the flow and picked his spots. He really did a good job of picking his spots and doing well. He really gave us a nice boost. He and Milan (Prodanovic) came off the bench and played really well.

Since we’ve played so many guys all year, I have a lot of confidence going to the bench. Guys coming off the bench are experienced and are good players, so there’s not too much of a letdown when they come in.

You guys are hitting a nice stride.

Yeah, I think defensively we’re really playing well. Even though we didn’t give up a great percentage on defense tonight, I thought we did really well of stopping, they’re a very good shooting basketball team, so holding them to 1-for-15 3s is something we needed to do and we did a good job of it.

I have so much respect for Ryan Thompson and Justin Robinson as shooters. Obviously Ryan’s a terrific basketball player. I wanted to have them take tough 2s and not open 3s. They really get going when they hit open shots, so I thought we did a great job of chasing them off the line and making them take 2s.

Surprised by the way things have gone south for Rider?

You know what? Someone asked me that the other day and I think they’ve played a very tough schedule. They’ve played a tough schedule. They’re a very good basketball team, and they’ve played a lot of tough games on the road. Being on the road, you don’t get as much practice. They’re still a very good basketball team. I think their schedule’s beaten them down more than anything else. I don’t think there are any problems with that basketball team.

Starting to get comfortable at home?

You know what, we were 4-0 in our non-conference. That was early December, so we were still trying to get rotations. I think most importantly, we’re getting good practice time. Guys are working on their shots, coming in extra, and that’s one reason why our shooting percentage has been up.