The kids really stepped up to the plate and played extremely well on both sides of the floor. We switched to a half-court defense, and that slowed down Johnston and allowed us to get some transition points.

We made our free throws late in the game and that was big.

Ames-Valley is a great rivalry, so we know it's one game where we never have to worry about focus with the kids. The kids had great focus and executed the game plan, and we were able to take away a victory.

I told the kids in the locker room that no one person won this game for us; it was a great team effort. We knew that's what it would take to beat a team like Valley. It would have to be a team win, and that's what it was.

We started to put a lot of pressure on them defensively, which turned into offensive opportunities late.

Johnston is a very good ball team, they are well-coached and have depth. We weren't sharp for most of the game, so we were lucky to stay as close as we did.

I told the kids that this is our conference championship.

We started out sluggish, but they responded well and picked up the pressure and forced some turnovers.

Our goal coming over here was to just try and win. We didn't want to look past the game and look ahead to Dowling and let this one jump up and catch us. We could've been better in areas but we did what we had to do in the fourth quarter to win the game.