Chattanooga Basketball Postgame Quotes
Chattanooga at Virginia Tech
Cassell Coliseum – Blacksburg, Va.
Wednesday – Dec. 11, 2019

Lamont Paris, Head Coach
On overall effort after tough 63-58 loss at Virginia Tech.
"It was there for the taking. There were a lot of things in the first half that we didn't do, but I focused more on what we did do. No matter how you slice it, it's a four point game at half. It could have been better, but it could have been worse. We're right there, though. We had some chances. We got up by four and then gave up a three and that one hurt. I thought the second half we competed really well on [Landers] Nolley II. We just didn't do enough. The rebounding really hurt us. We made too many errors in that regard. We did a lot of good things, but we just couldn't seize it when it was winning time."
 
On defensive effort.
"Our guys had some resolve and showed some fight while doing what we needed to do. We got the ball inside and had some easy scores, and we got some stops defensively. When we stuck to what we wanted to defensively, I thought we did a really good job. They got the best of us on the rebounding, especially in the first half."

On second half efforts.
"Two halves. I talked about that at halftime. No matter how you slice it, it's four points at halftime. I thought we did a pretty good job overall. A lot of things we gave them were just simple errors. We said in the locker room that we wanted to put a second half together that counts, one that will give a chance to win. And I think we did that for the most part, but it just wasn't enough."
 
On VT's late game play.
"They did. They made free throws when they were up. They made a couple shots. It was a lot of things and they did some things that allowed them to win the game. We also had some opportunities to seize winning moments, but just couldn't do it."

On team's performance and competition level.
"We competed well enough at Tennessee but didn't perform well enough. I think we performed better tonight. It was, maybe, good enough to win the game. We were just on the cusp of performing reasonably well. Some guys netted positive, some guys netted negative. It was really close to that reasonably well level. We could have played better, but we definitely competed well. I liked what I saw in a lot of different areas, I just have a hard time not winning that game.

Stefan Kenic, Jr.-F
On the difference in tonight's close loss at Virginia Tech.
"I'm really proud of my team against a high-major team, but I think this was supposed to be our win. We didn't box out very well and gave them second chance points. We had a small sequence in the second half where we missed a lay up and had a turnover, but I don't think that really decided it. I think the offensive boards did."

On needing to box out VT rebounders.
"We spoke at halftime. We were down by four points and that's after we gave them 14 second-chance points. So we knew if we could cut that down, we'd have a shot. We'll do better next time but I'm proud of my teammates for a better effort on boxing out in the second half."

On trying to utilize the post.
"At the timeout, we told each that we needed to move the ball and get open shots. We said let's get the ball on the post since we're bigger with Ramon [Vila] down there. That's where we were getting our shots. They were trying to double us on the post and if they did, we had the extra pass in the corner always open."

On using the height advantage.
"We spoke about it before the game that we'll have the height advantage and if we could take advantage of that in the post, it'd really help us. I think we did a good job of that tonight. I think we were aggressive enough but the small things like boxing out hurt us. We'll fix that."

On the easy and comfortable transition into playing.
"I think it's because our coaches and teammates. It was so easy for me to start playing right away and I didn't feel like I needed time to adapt to how we play and what we're doing. Even just coming here on a visit, I knew that this was a special place and a place I wanted to be. I think that's why it's so easy stepping right in and playing. I'm very comfortable and proud of my teammates."