MOCS MEN'S BASKETBALL QUOTES
Game No. 30 | Chattanooga at VMI | Lexington, Va. | February 26, 2015
Head Coach Will Wade
On tonight's game:
“We made some plays. Tre' McLean hit a three for about the first time since the Lipscomb game. Duke [Ethridge] obviously hit that big three, so we made enough plays. It wasn't pretty by any stretch of the imagination, but good teams find a way to win, and we found a way to win. These were two highly-motivated teams tonight. VMI was extremely motivated for the bye, and our guys were motivated. I thought we started off better, which was good. I thought we started the game better, but then we went on a little bit of a lull midway through the first half offensively, which hurt us. But we guarded the three-point line really well. We could have made it easier for ourselves if we shot free-throws better. We missed way too many free-throws, especially in the second half. We didn't do a great job at the foul line but despite all of that we were able to survive it. We got 70 shots, we out rebounded them again and we only turned the ball over 13 times for a 50 minute game. That's pretty good against them. We'll take it. We have a list of things we need to correct tomorrow as we head to Greensboro for the finale on Saturday.”
On tonight's close game:
“We were fortunate to be down five at the half. I thought the start of the second half was key for us. We were able to get the lead there with Chuck's [Ester] basket relatively early in the half. We weren't fighting uphill, but we could never pull away. We had a four-five point lead a couple of times, but we could never really pull away and make something happen. But we hung in there. We made enough plays and it's a road win.”
On VMI's Julian Eleby:
“He was great tonight. He played a heck of a game. We couldn't guard him off the bounce. He got in the lane and made things happen. He's a heck of a player.”
On Casey Jones' offensive rebound in regulation:
“I was thinking lay it in. It was a three-point game, I was thinking lay it in and get us a two-point lead and let's go. It was the right play; he did the right thing we just got to make it.”
On the team's efforts as a whole:
“We needed everyone tonight. To Tre's [McLean] credit, he sits in there and shoots every day and Duke [Ethridge] gets extra shots up every day. We needed everyone's contributions tonight. We needed a little bit from everybody. Anytime you get four guys in double figures, that bodes well for you. Our guys did enough. We'll get what we need corrected, and we'll move on from there.”
Junior Guard Eric Robertson
On tonight's game:
“The game was long and tough. Both teams were tired, you could see that, and we just pulled it through at the end.”
On the Chattanooga's offensive efforts:
“We had some huge plays. Tre' [McLean] made a three and then Duke [Ethridge] made a three. They've been working on their shots a lot. Before practice they stay up and shoot, so tonight they went in and it was good.”
On VMI's Julian Eleby:
“He's a really good player. He played good in the Western game so we knew he would have confidence coming into this game and he played really good.”
On his offensive performance:
“My teammates do a good job finding me and getting me open. Most of my shots are usually off assists from my teammates. I really don't create my own shots, so that's a credit to my teammates for that.”
On his efforts on driving to the basket:
“This game they were jumping at all my threes so I made a few drives to the basket, which helped us out. Coach Casey [Long] told me that they would be waiting for the threes so I might have to drive it in and get some good looks inside and then my threes would be open.”
On Chattanooga's 21st victory of the year:
“That's a good number; 21 wins is big so if we can get to 22 that's even better.”
Junior Guard Casey Jones
On tonight's game
“VMI has improved since the last time we played them. They've been playing really well. They had guys who made eight threes in the game, three of them that were back-to-back. We played a good team that's getting better so we toughed it out on the road and we pulled it out. They didn't get off at the three-point line like they do against other teams so that's one of the positives we can take away from the game.”
On the necessity to rebound for tongiht's victory:
“Rebounding was really big for us. They came out and in the first minute they had three offensive rebounds so we had to turn it up. They can live off of those offensive rebounds to kick outs so we wanted to rebound better. That was big for the game.”
Thoughts moving forward:
“It would be big for our seniors to get 22 wins. None of us have done that yet. We just want to get this next win and get some momentum going into the tournament. Hopefully, we can play better than we did tonight and get our confidence up, going into next weekend.”
