Chattanooga Basketball Postgame Quotes
Chattanooga at VMI
Lexington, Va.
Sunday - Feb. 25, 2018
Head Coach Lamont Paris
On playing in close games:
"We won't be nervous in any way.  That should help us maybe make the plays that we need to.  There are all kinds of close games.  Sometimes you are in a battle and it is nip-and-tuck.  Sometimes you are holding on for dear life at the end and other times you are trying to make a comeback.  This one was the last of those three.

"You can't play that poorly for most of the game and feel like you are going to have a chance to win.  You can't play harder and believe more and do things better because more shots are going in.  That is not how our program is going to be built.  We will not be a program, that since we are scoring , I guess we will play some defense now too.  We are not going to be built that way and that is what we were doing.  We were not getting stops.  We still couldn't rebound.  Two critical offensive rebounds at the end of the game."

More on VMI's offensive rebounds:
"They were going aggressively.  That is why they fouled us a couple of times.  They fouled Nat on a wild foul.  They were going to the boards, and if you box them out properly and aggressively … one, you have a chance to rebound it, and two, they probably foul you.  But if you don't, they keep the ball alive.  Which they did on two possessions and that was the game.  That is game-winning time."

On the team being fatigued:
"I thought we were tired.  There were a couple of guys who were particularly tired and we tried to sub them.  That was somewhat of a factor.  They only problem with that is I think we played better later."

On Makale Foreman getting two fouls early in the game:
"The first one on the first possession was a play where he got overzealous and got tangled up and couldn't stop himself.  The other one, sometimes you get in situations where you have to foul or try to take a charge, dive on a loose ball and it ends up being a foul.  The ones that hurt you are that one.  I played him I don't know how many more minutes once he got two fouls in the first half.  That wasn't ideal."

Down by 17, and trim the lead to five and miss the front end of a one-and-one:
"You have to convert those.  We can go back and look at it and figure out how many times around the basket they took it from us like we were children."

Makale Foreman – So.-G
Opening thoughts on the game:
"We have to come out with more energy and intensity at the start of the game so we won't be in these type of situations towards the end of the game.  We just have to always play hard and come out with better energy so we can have a better chance at the end of the game."

Down 17 in the final game of the year … thoughts on fighting back:
We fought hard in the second half to push the lead down.  We got some good stops on the defensive end.  It all starts with that start of the game, we all have to come out with more energy and intensity at the start so we have a better chance at the end of the game. 

On being short-handed and having to play point guard:
"It does take a lot of energy.  I have the ball in my hand and have to control this team and lead this team and try to get them to victory.  I have to do it on the defensive side too, chasing around trying to stop their best player.  We just try to go out there and play hard every game."

On experience in playing close games:
"We do have a lot of experience in playing close games.  I think that is what is going to help us going into the tournament.  Maybe we can get a win.  We will just have to see how it plays out."

On the first round against Samford in next week's SoCon Tournament;
"It should be a good game.  Will probably come down to the wire.  We will just see how it goes.  We will have to come out with a lot of energy and intensity at the start of the game so we can put ourselves in a good position at the end of the game." 

On giving up 11 offensive rebounds and needing to get a stop late:
"They got some key rebounds at the end of the game.  We didn't box out at the end of the game and that is probably what cost us."

On outscoring VMI by 10 in the second half:
"We tried to come out with better energy in the second half and get the lead down and see how it goes from there."