Chattanooga Basketball Postgame Quotes
Chattanooga at UNC Asheville
The Sherrill Center And Kimmell Arena – Asheville, N.C.
Saturday – Dec. 21, 2019

Lamont Paris, Head Coach
Overall thoughts after today's 68-64 win at UNC Asheville.
"I think it worked well for us that there were timeouts, and we could come back and collect ourselves and get back to what we were doing. There was one point where I challenged them. We broke the timeout and I told them to go win the game. We're to the point where we are starting to realize what that means. It doesn't mean to go make a 10-point shot, or do something crazy, but to continue to do what you got you in that position."

On what it takes to win down the stretch.
"The guys are resilient. The way you know it the most is because in those situations, they have allowed me to coach them pretty aggressively in those scenarios. I don't have to be lovey-dovey, hug them, I can tell them the truth of what's really happening and what's the best way to win the game. They take that coaching and they try to put it in what they're doing on the floor. Aside from being resilient, I don't know if it's smart, but I think their belief is really high in what we're trying to do and that's a big part in what has helped. It's a great group of young men, and I really enjoy coaching them."

On handling the pressure and limiting turnovers.
"That was part of what I meant as far as buying in to what it takes to win the game. Turnovers are always going to be a thing that you want to limit to have the best chance to win the game. But in this game in particular, if you turn the ball over, you're not winning the game if you have a high number of turnovers. I thought we did a good job of that, laying off some stuff. I think we handled the pressure pretty well in the first half. I think there was only one turnover directly caused by big-time pressure. I thought for the game, we handled it pretty well overall, even when they got a couple five-point plays and put that press on again. We were efficient during that stretch where we took the lead, we were efficient offensively which kept us from going against the pressure on quite as many possessions."
 
Ramon Vila, RS-Jr.-F
On limiting Asheville to just three offensive rebounds.
"That was huge. In the pregame chat with Coach, he emphasized that this game was going to come down to rebounding. This week we have been working, specifically, on rebounding and boxing out for four days. We worked on it and it worked out. I'm extremely happy because as a big man, it makes me proud that we only allowed three offensive rebounds. That's huge for us and something we need to keep working on and doing."
 
On importance of taking a win into the Christmas break.
"That's huge for us. We're just the fourth team in school history to beat seven division I teams. That makes us extremely proud. When you win games, you're happier, you're willing to work more, you enjoy it more. It's important to keeping winning games. I think with this team, we're older, so if even if we lose one or two games unexpectedly, we'll keep working. We'll keep working hard. But of course, a win before Christmas break helps a lot."
 
Matt Ryan, Gr.-G
On closing the game out.
"I think we had a really balanced attack. Being able to close things out, that's a spot that I want to be in. I want to be on the line in those situations, I want to be able to win the game."
 
On winning feeling.
"Everything is better when you win. The whole vibe would be different if we blew our lead and lost the game. Winning heals all. Losing would have hurt going into a few days off, not seeing each other, a few days off. It's a lot of good energy heading into the Christmas break."
 
On handling the lead and winning things down the stretch.
"That's college basketball. No lead is safe. We look up and see that we're up 14 with 10:50 on the clock at a media timeout. We said there's a lot of time left and in a blink of an eye the game's tied on a crazy run. For our team to weather that storm, to bounce back, to close out, was big. We made some winning plays."