Chattanooga Basketball Postgame Quotes
Mercer vs. Chattanooga
Southern Conference Tournament Championship
U.S. Cellular Center – Asheville, N.C.
Sunday – March 5, 2017

Head Coach Jim Foster
On the play of guard Queen Alford..
"We changed defenses and we started to big up a little energy. Queen is an energy force for us off the bench. She brings a little extra juice for us. When she gets on fire, you keep going her way. She felt it, and you could sense it. They players sensed it and she came up with some big baskets. She was ready."

On Mercer's final shot of the game …
"When I saw it take the second bounce, I thought it was coming my way instead of the opposite, so I felt pretty good about that."

On the fight of his team…
"[I don't think we could have won that game without the schedule we played]. We became tougher [throughout the season]. We did not start this game well, and we did not play well for a long time, and [Mercer] played very well. But when we made a basket or two and changed defenses, it energized us. You could see it, and you feel it. The baskets started to come after that.

Queen Alford – Sr.-G
On her play today…
"I was sitting on the bench and just being patient. The biggest thing I learned the year I transferred was to be patient. Through my success and through my failures, I have learned how to be patient. So during this game, when I was sitting [on the bench], I just said to myself, 'when I go in there, I am going to give it everything that I have.' And that is what I did. It was not because of me, it was God."

Jasmine Joyner – Sr.-F
On how Chattanooga's tough schedule impacted the game…
"I felt we probably would have put our heads down and thought the game was over [without the tough non-conference schedule]. With the season we had, we learned how to fight and come together more. We always make the comeback to fight and win. If we did not have the tough schedule, it would not have showed how tough we are."

On the play of Queen Alford…
"She was outstanding. Every time she went in aggressive, I had to look at her and let her know that she was doing her thing tonight. We needed that burst of energy and Queen came in and did that job."

Mercer Head Coach Susie Gardner
Opening statement...
"First of all I couldn't be more proud to be Mercer's coach and of the team we put out on the floor this entire year. I thought we outplayed Chattanooga for 28 minutes. We had a 13-point lead with 12 minutes to go. Our word for the year was 'finish,' and that's what we needed to do. We needed to get stops and shots and not have untimely turnovers. That's not what happened. This is very difficult, but we are proud of this group and the season that we've had."

On the difference in the fourth quarter...
"Probably our defense. We didn't get stops. We had some turnovers that didn't make sense. We just didn't play our best offensively and we didn't get stops or defensive rebounds."

Mercer junior guard Sydni Means
On the look for the last shot, taken by Linnea Rosendal...
"I knew that there were 3.9 seconds on the clock and I knew I could get down the court in four seconds. I was going with the intention to shoot the shot but I saw my teammate and I knew that she could make that shot. It was a good look, though."

Mercer junior guard Kahlia Lawrence
On going into the fourth quarter...
"Like coach said, we were playing well the first half and the beginning of the third quarter. We had confidence the whole game, but we gave up some easy baskets. We weren't playing as good of defense as we were in the beginning of the game. We still had confidence that we were going to pull it out, but we kind of lost it. Not knocking Chattanooga, because we know they're a great team, but we did some things that were uncharacteristic and gave this one away."