Head coach Matt McCall
On having nine team blocks.
"Justin Tuoyo had three of them. Tre' McLean had two. Really trying to help Tuoyo a lot here on not picking up bad fouls. He's a guy that shouldn't have to leave his feet to block shots because he's so long. And just trying to be more disciplined because as good as he is and as good as a shot blocker as he is and his physical presence on the inside, he can sometimes get a little bit picked on.

"Teams go at him to try to get him in foul trouble because when he's out on the floor, you're eliminating your eraser back there. I thought he did a good job tonight, especially in the first half. We were really focusing on going to him in the second half, especially late in the game. He makes those plays. He makes big plays down the stretch. But I'm really proud of all of our guys.

On Greg Pryor's performance.
"Coming out of The Citadel game, I met with Greg Pryor one-on-one and was just talking to him about running our team and playing with a pace. I felt like he was sped up a little too much in The Citadel game and showed him some film of running our team. Your point guard goes for 17 and 10 and three turnovers, and one of the turnovers was late in the game there when we kind of got a rebound and bobbled the ball out of bounds. But you're going to take that from him every single night.

"I thought Chuck Ester was such a physical presence. The game was really, really physical, up front especially, and Chuck held his ground and played some great minutes. Tre' McLean continues to have big nights, and he continues to focus on the right things. He goes for nine rebounds. I'll take a team full of those kids and all of those guys, but Tre' wears his emotions on his sleeve. I'm really proud to be his coach every single day, and all these guys."

Do you feel the team handled the moment in a big rivalry game?
"We knew emotions we're going to be running high on a game like this. I tried to talk to our guys last night about not getting so caught up in that. I felt like in The Citadel game we got caught up in what everyone else thinks we should do in this game and not what we have to do to win the game. There was a lot of hype around this game. I don't know how you're going to get two Southern Conference opponents playing at this point in the year with a 12-2 and 11-3 record. I can't imagine that happens very often at this point.

"We came out the right way to go up 20 in the first half. I felt like we got stagnant. They went zone. The ball wasn't getting to the middle of the floor. We were driving it too much, and in a game against those guys, it should be a one-dribble pass and get off the ball and get the floor moving. We kind of went back to that late in the game. I felt like our guys handled the moment the right way.

"Obviously, Phillip Leonard in foul trouble in the first half, him on the bench and Stephon Jelks, those are two of their best players. Leonard a leader, a four-year guy, that played into our hands too when those two guys went to the bench."

Did the good start make the difference in this game?
"I mean the start obviously helped, but it got to a two-point game. And then Greg Pryor did what Greg Pryor's done a lot this year. It's one of those where, 'please don't shoot it. Boom it goes in.' As a coach, there's got to be a balance between me and him. I don't want to take away that fearlessness from him. If that shot doesn't come in, they come down and score. It's a tie game. Everyone is saying why did Greg shoot that ball, but that's part of who he is as a player.

"You're talking about a kid who wasn't even recruited out of high school really and has fought, scratched and clawed to get to where he's at. And he's just wired the right way, and he's a winner. Again like all these guys, I'm happy and proud to be able to coach those guys every single day."

On being a tight game.
"Bob Hoffman is one of the best coaches in the country in my opinion. The game was going to get close. Those guys, they know how to win. You don't beat Duke in the NCAA Tournament and not know how to win. He's built a winning culture there. There's no question that the game was going to get tight, especially because we got up big in the first eight minutes of the game. They're too good of a team not to make a run.

"We knew it was going to be tight. My whole thing was we couldn't get rattled. I felt I did a poor job in the second half of subbing. I thought there were some stretches there where we got gassed, and I needed to get some guys off the floor and give them some rest to be able to be a little fresher up the stretch. That's on me, but we found a way to get stops in the end."

Justin Tuoyo, forward, junior
On his performance in the end.
"I was just trying to stay with it. Coach McCall was telling me the whole game 'Don't get frustrated, your shots will end up falling.' The guys did a great job with giving me the ball, and I just tried to say with it the whole game."

How anxious were you getting on the bench in the second half?
"Tre' and I were sitting together and we were talking about how we felt like we were in jail because we wanted to get out so quick. But Coach McCall tells us all the time to stay with it, the last nine minutes, we're going to go back into the game."

"Don't get frustrated, that was our biggest deal coming into the game. They're a great team, they're going to make runs, so he told us don't get frustrated at any point. We were just waiting for our time to get back in and try to extend the lead."

Do you feel like you made the statement you wanted tonight?
"Honestly no, because I feel like everybody doesn't respect Chattanooga yet. I don't expect them to. We haven't done anything. We're just having a good year right now. Like I said, we beat a really good team but this wasn't it.

"We have another hard game on Saturday, Furman who knocked us out last year. Then we have Wofford who won the SoCon, so we're just trying to battle. We're going to move on. We're going to celebrate tonight, and then we have to keep fighting. We have a lot to prove."

Greg Pryor, guard, junior
Did you feel it was going to get tough even with the 20-point lead in the first half?
"I knew at any point, if we lost focus, then the lead can go just the way it did. I knew that if we veered from the way that we played to get the lead, then it could easily go away. We kind of did that and they made a run, and we just had to fight the run."

On his three-point shot towards the end of the second half.
"I just look at it like a normal shot. I shot the shot like I would shoot any other shot. I didn't think about the clock or the point situation. I had to shoot the ball, so I just shot it and it went in."

How important is it to stay with it where they are?
"You just have to stay focused. You're not going to shutout a team in a basketball game. People are going to score. As long as you stay focused and have faith in your teammates and yourself playing the game, then you don't have anything to worry about in that case. If Jordan Strawberry scored then he scored. It would be the same as anybody else scoring, so I just look for my teammates."

Mercer head coach Bob Hoffman
Opening statement.
"I thought that we just got off to a bad start and it was obviously because of them. I didn't have us in the edge that we needed to get it done, but we fought to get back into the game. Those two big possessions where we were down two but weren't able to finish, and they came down and hit an and-1 and then a guarded three.

"That basically was the difference of the game in the second half. It was amazing how our guys fought in the second half and that's the kind of resiliency they've shown all year. I'm fortunate to get to coach them every day. I know they're going to keep getting better and we'll use this as a great experience for our guys to find a way to get it done the next time."

On Pryor's three pointer with the shot clock winding down.

"We know he's always going to take those big shots, and he's better at the end. He's hit all kinds of great shots in his career, which is what he does. Throughout the course of the game he always gets everybody involved. He could take over a game whenever he wanted to, but that was a big shot, and he definitely drained it.
 

"We were right there, had a great defensive possession and were right where we needed to be, and then he just raised up and hit a shot while being guarded. That's what basketball's about sometimes. You do all the right things, but a guy can do better than you, and he was on that possession on that time."
 

On falling behind by over 20 early in the game.

"I was hopeful because we've come back before, but we had two of our best players on the bench when they got two fouls in the first four minutes. The first four fouls were on us. Two on Stephon Jelks and Phillip Leonard. That put us behind the eight-ball, no doubt against the athletes that we have to play. Stephon is one of our best athletes and Phillip is not far behind him, but our guys found a way to battle and that's definitely a credit to our assistant coaches and those guys who came off the bench hungry.
 

"We made some plays, not as many as we liked to, but we were trying to get to 10 and we were right there at halftime. In the second half, I thought our guys showed amazing determination in the midst of a tough situation and came really close to getting it done."
 

On impressions of the Southern Conference so far.

"I think it's been a great year for the league, and I think there will be tremendous ball games on the road. All of us are going to have hard times. The Citadel almost got UTC and we play them next, and they are really good. I think there are going to be lots of wins for all the teams in the league because they played such a great non-conference schedule and done so well. It's really historic and probably it's been awhile since I've been here.
 

"What Chattanooga did is beyond historic. Winning those three games against Dayton, Illinois and Georgia, that's as good as it gets. You couldn't ask for anything more and I think their RPI definitely shows it and their coach. If you could give a Coach of the Year award, I think it should be given to him, because what he's done is off the charts."