Despite a poor shooting performance, Northwestern was able to pull out a 63-51 win over American. Here’s what Vic Law, Derek Pardon and Chris Collins had to say after the game.

Vic Law

On struggling: “Some days shots aren’t gonna fall...You’re not gonna play great every night...I think now you’re seeing around college basketball a lot of these teams are playing good teams very closely. You’ve just gotta play good basketball and dig it out in the end.”

On seeing others contribute: “In the first half, shots weren’t falling, but those are the shots we take every day...Early in the game I was rolling. I was making my shots. I was getting some really good lucks. In the second half, it’s a team game and we have everybody out here taking their shots.”

On playing in a new arena: “We’re just happy to be back...It’s good to be home...We come out ready to play every night no matter where we are.”

On Ryan Greer: “He played very well. He came in and did his job really well. He gave us good minutes. He didn’t score a ton, but he guarded really well and ran the offense. As a freshman coming into a close game, it’s kinda hard to ask sometimes.”

On finding Dererk: “We’ve gotta feed the monster. Dererk does a good job of working down there...if he’s open we’ve gotta give it to him.”

On preparing for conference play: “Defense seems to be clicking, but offensively, we can get a little sharper.”

On team identity: “We’ve got 10 guys that are ready to roll at anytime, and we’re a good defensive blue collar team.”

Derek Pardon

On rebounding: “Pretty much just do what I’ve been doing my entire career. Just being active, being aggressive on the boards, trying to get the extra opportunities for my team.”

On struggling: “I feel like they’re a good team...we just dug down deep and won it out...we held them to 51 points.”

On playing in a new arena: “It’s just good to be back. Of course there’s a difference in arenas, but we practiced here for a couple weeks beforehand. It comes with time.”

On Ryan Greer: “He was very solid for us...He had the best plus/minus on the team. He was really effective in his role.”

On getting more involved in the post: “I got the ball a lot more. I just cant shoot 2 percent from the field, but shots will fall. It happens to everybody.”

Chris Collins

On pulling out the win: “Very pleased to win tonight. Certainly it was not going well for us from a shooting standpoint, to say the least. I thought we were getting the ball exactly where we wanted to get it...It was just one of those nights where we felt like there was a lid on the basket. What I was most proud of of our team this game was a lot of times when that’s the case in a game, it wears your defense down because mentally you’re pressing about scoring and it affects you on the other end.”

On American: “The kid Nelson is an outstanding guard. He’s preseason player of the year in the Patriot League...That’s a good league. There are good teams. This is a day and age where everybody’s good...I knew this was gonna be a tough game, and I was very proud to hold them to 20 points in the second half...I know their big kid got some post-ups, but it was a big emphasis for us to cut off the threes at halftime.”

On Ryan Greer: “I thought Ryan Greer’s age was huge...He’s our No. 1 plus/minus guy in the game, plus 18. I thought he settled us down...I was really proud of him because he only played a couple of minutes on opening night.”

On Vic Law carrying team: “I thought Vic did a great job...He’s had conditioning issues because of a genetic thing that he was going through that we were able to correct in the offseason. He’s worked really hard this summer to get his endurance to a level where he can play 35, 36 minutes. He could never do that in the past...He came out early and set the tone for us.”

On learning from offensive struggles: “I thought we got some good looks...When it wasnt going down, we decided to go inside...It was just one of those nights that it just wasn’t going down...It was just one of those nights that we weren’t making shots.”

On halftime speech: “We just talked about defending the three...we gave up 5 threes and our numbers are usually 6 and under...We wanted to cause some problems for Gasperini in the post.”

On team identity: “We talk about pound the rock...We’ve been a team that fights on every possession...The length is a big factor for us...We have size in the wing and the guard positions. I think that was a factor for us tonight.”

On football winning Big Ten West: “I was watching the game...I think we mirror each other a lot. There’s no bigger fan of their program than me...What an amazing accomplishment.”

On improving offense: “I think we had a lot more action on cuts. We got more layups tonight. We got caught in a grinder. Sometimes you have those games. At the end of the season, no ones gonna ask us how pretty or ugly the game was against American. Did you win or did you lose?”

On Derek Pardon: “He had the ball at the rim 12 times. To me, that’s pretty good efficiency. He just has to finish those plays...Tonight, it just wasn’t going down for him.”

On turnovers: “Single digit turnovers, that’s two games in a row...if you’re turning it over single digits, you’re doing a pretty good job.”

On playing Ryan Greer over Jordan Ash: “Tonight he played well so I went with him. At the end of the day, I’m just trying to find the right combinations...some guys were struggling, some guys were playing well...I went with the guys that were playing well...from night to night its gonna be a different face.”