Chattanooga Basketball Postgame Quotes
ETSU at Chattanooga
McKenzie Arena  - Chattanooga, Tenn.
Saturday – Feb. 27, 2016

Head Coach Jim Foster
On the second half.. .
"We got more aggressive on defense, started to beat some screens, made it more difficult for them to get shots. They got easy shots early on. They came out, they had a week to prepare for us, they obviously had, and we had to make some adjustments and we did."

Was it a point of emphasis to get anyone open in the paint?
"Yea, well once we got into transition and we knew that our post players were quick and that they went with the smaller line up so we had two opportunities to score around the basket. They first would be to get Jasmine a look, and then when we pulled Jasmine away from the basket, our guards that had mismatches took advantage of the opportunity around the basket."

 Does this Conference title feel any different?
"They're all different. We had two games in a row where we just did not play well . We were fortunate to have our bye. That gave us four days to practice and we put a lot new things in; new offensive sets, did some different things defensively that we hadn't done before. When we can out in the league the second time, we had more dimension and we were more comfortable, both offense and defense, we were a more comfortable basketball team.  I think the results speak for themselves." 

Do you feel like the last three games send a message to the league?
"I'm not worried about the rest of the league, I'm worried about us, and we have to take care of who we are. As long as we maintain the intensity that we bring to practice on a daily basis and play the way we play we will come up with different ways to win basketball games. Tonight Ariana comes up with eleven points, a couple of key rebounds; she did some very good things for us. Kiana continues to evolve as a terrific player with a lot dimensions to her. She fills up the stat sheet in every area."

Jasmine Joyner
What did you see in the paint in the second half?
"First it was important to run the floor because I knew I could out run their post, also kept in mind that their post player was in foul trouble. When you think about it you want to stay in the game as much as possible because in know how it is to be in foul trouble. Sometimes you have to let the post player score instead of getting fouled taking that risk. I just post up hard, my teammates see me and then I was there to score."

On the title…
"We've definitely came a long way from the two loses . I can say it was a lesson learned. After that we woke up and said this is not going to be easy so it made play like the team we are today. Everybody is being aggressive. Queen, you see she's  getting comfortable to the court now. She knows what she has to do. Red is scoring now, she can shoot. We have Kiana knowing she can shoot. Last year they would  back off of her because they knew she would drive. Now they have to do even more because she's having strength in both. Ariana, she's getting more comfortable and now she's got a layup today; that's the fastest I've seen her run. It was good. There was a lot of strength and weaknesses in the season but it's definitely helped us be the great team we are today."

Alicia Payne
What changed on defense in the second quarter?
"We had the same game play. I guess we got a little tougher into things, more personal, trying to guard our own men. Nothing really changed though; we just got a little tougher."

Was that a boost for your defense?
"Yes, I think it helps our offense when we are really silent on defense so I think it helped us."

On the title…
"It's really exciting to win. It's cool this year because I felt like we had to face a lot of adversity with a lot of injurie. People had to step up and play, maybe different rolls that their not used to. So I think that this is really special because it shows that we can overcome."

On the three point shot at the buzzer…
"I worked on these shots a lot in practice and they think that I'm joking around when I'm shooting from half court or just trying to throw up shots. They don't think it will come in handy. Sometimes, like you saw, it does come in handy."

On how the team has come together over the last month..
"With the two loses I think it really taught us something, it really taught us that it wasn't going to come easy, that we have to work hard. We had a meeting and really set our goals for the rest of the season.  We said ok what do we want to do this season. We wanted to win the SoCon and a lot of other goals. I think setting those goals, we had something to reach towards every game really helped us."