Wake Forest basketball coach Danny Manning talks with reporters after his Demon Deacons fell to second-ranked UVA, 61-60, on Saturday in ACC action in Charlottesville, Va.

Opening statement: “This afternoon was a hard-fought ballgame. I thought in the first half we came out and moved the ball well. We had some guys knock down some shots. They went in during halftime and Tony [Bennett] made some adjustments. He’s been doing a great job, they’re having a wonderful year. They won the second half. At the end of the ballgame, those guys just sat down and made a great defensive play. That’s great team defense and that’s why they are where they are. For us, we have to a better job in that situation.”

On Virginia’s defensive adjustments in the second half: “They were a little bit more active. I thought they were switching ball screens some, which they didn’t do much of early on. When you don’t make shots you have to give the defense credit. I thought we missed a couple shots that we’d like to have over again.”

On the last play of the game: “We got what we were looking for. But before that, I looked at the stat sheet and they scored 34 points in the paint and 20 points off of our turnovers. We didn’t make our free throws. There will be a lot of people who look to the last minute or so of the ballgame, but for me I saw those omissions that if we corrected them it wouldn’t have been that close down the stretch. But, that’s the game of basketball. We have to value each possession, whether its in the first half or in the last minute of the ballgame.”

On taking the game as a learning experience: “We’ve had a lot of games this year by that definition, and I’m tired of it.”

On Devin Thomas’ impact on the game: “They doubled teamed Devin and I thought that for the most part he did a good job of finding teammates. I thought he did a good job of having a presence in the post and that’s one of the reasons why Dinos [Mitoglou] was able to get loose and make six 3’s tonight.”

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