Chattanooga Basketball Postgame Quotes
Chattanooga at Mercer
Hawkins Arena - Macon, Ga.
Saturday – Jan. 7, 2017

Head Coach Jim Foster
Opening thoughts on the game:
"I think we played a solid four quarters of basketball, and that has been the goal, to get to be a four-quarter team and not a first-half team or a second-half team.  All four quarters matter and it is the reason we have played the schedule we have played, to get tough and to understand who we are, to be exposed to our weaknesses. 

"Bad teams or teams that you play on a regular basis that you can beat, don't expose your weaknesses.  Conference teams can, because they play you so often.  They have an answer.  Teams through the preseason, you may have seen them twice in your career.  Conference teams, you could play them 10 times in your career.  It is a little different

"We wanted our kids to get tougher. We wanted them to understand who they are as players.  I think you do that by going out and playing better teams.  We have played some teams and we get down 16 points and come back and win the game.  Guess what, maybe they weren't that good and maybe we didn't play hard enough 

"Why did we get down 16.  That's not going to happen against Connecticut, Notre Dame, Louisville.  Now you start to get an idea of who you are, and then they start to take away stuff from you.  The teaching part and the coaching part ... this is why you need the ability to go left and right.  This is why you need to learn how to score off the bounce.  This is why you learn to score on the block and move away from the block.  It is good." 

On the inside game today:
"We got a lot of backdoor baskets.  They don't play a lot of man, but when they do they come out aggressive.  If you time it right and you do what you are supposed to do and the person with the ball does what she is supposed to, the backdoor opportunities are there.  We have a lot of backdoor releases on our offensive sets and our players executed them very well today." 

On the Mocs' unselfish play:
"We did a lot of good things today.  We have learned enough about ourselves to become a pretty good basketball team, and enough to step up to the challenges that are there.  We have played, in my opinion, two very good basketball teams.  I think Samford presents a whole series of problems and I think Mercer presents another series of problems.  Our objective is to create problems for them and I think we did a pretty good job of that." 

On mercer's run in the third quarter:
"They went to a little half-court trap and we knew it was coming.  Chelsea was on the bench and (Keiana) made a mistake going into a trap that she should not have gone into.  So they got a couple of good baskets.  Once we settled down and knew what we were going to do, we were fine. 

"Playing the environments we have played in helped.  Looking at Lakelyn at Rutgers and she was very wide-eyed in her first college game.  Then we come in here and it is a very good crowd for them and different atmosphere from most of the places in our league, and she is just very matter-of-fact.  That's why playing at Connecticut and Rutgers and Louisville is important.  It becomes matter-of-fact for you."