Quotes from today’s game, a 61-56 Cincy win over UConn. In added news: Niels Giffey suffered a dislocation fracture of his right index finger and was slated to be evaluated further when the Huskies got back to Storrs Saturday night.

PHIL NOLAN:

(on his career-best 8 points, 7 rebounds)

“I probably wpould have felt better about the way I played if we had got the win.”

(on missing first of two FT’s that would have tied the game with 20 seconds left)

“I felt pretty good. I was pretty confident I was going to knock the free throw down. We’re all human, we all make mistakes. Just can’t hang your head about it, you just keep playing.”

RYAN BOATRIGHT:

“It was very frustrating. Last few games we’ve been right there, for us to take the game. We just fell short, man. We didn’t even get a shot up at the basket. That’s the most frustrating thing.”

(on the non-shooting foul, non-goaltend call with 3 ½ minutes left)

“What was I gonna do, run out-of-bounds? Obviously, I was going up for the layup. Once I went up, he obviously hit the ball out of the rim. He was laughing at me like, ‘Yeah, I got away with one.’ It is what it is, man. The refs can’t get every call, I guess.”

(on backcourt violation with 5.2 ticks left)

“Cashmere (Wright) definitely hit it. He touched it before he even went backcourt. I shouldn’t have even been in that situation in the first place. I should have made a better play or we should’ve run a better play.”

R.J. EVANS:

(on his first career start at UConn)

“I had an idea, because I was in the first group yesterday in practice, but didn’t know for sure.”

(on his inbounds pass with 20 seconds left that was stolen by Sean Kilpatrick)

“We were running the same play we always run. (Titus) Rubles made a good play. He took the ball, I didn’t think he was gonna jump that high. That one’s on me.”

KEVIN OLLIE:

“I don’t even really want to talk about Shabazz. These guys played hard. Shabazz is gonna get back, he’s gonna get back healthy. We played hard. Ballhandling or not, we had 19 turnovers against Georgetown, we had 15 tonight. These guys put us in a situation to win.”

(on Nolan)

“He played well, played aggressive, played with energy. I had to get on him in the first half, he took the challenge like a man and he played very, very well for us. He’s gonna be a great player for us in our program.”

(on Evans’ inbounds pass)

“They had a big center on it. R.J. tried to throw it over the top. We had been trying to get it over the top most of the game, and he just got a piece of it and it came up short.”

(finally talking about Shabazz … sorta)

“You can’t fill in the slack for Shabazz. Shabazz is one the best players in the Big East. You’ve got to play your game. Nobody fills in the slack. We just played with heart.”

SHABAZZ NAPIER

“I just woke up today and didn’t feel like it was possible for me to play basketball.”

(on missing first game in UConn career)

“It’s so difficult. I was thinking about getting dressed at halftime. I don’t like missing games. I’ve fought through a whole bunch of injuries, but this one I just couldn’t do.”