Chattanooga Basketball Postgame Quotes
Mercer at Chattanooga
McKenzie Arena – Chattanooga, Tenn.
Thursday – Feb. 21, 2020

Katie Burrows, Head Coach
Overall thoughts after tonight's close win over Mercer.
"Our kids were working down there and there was some contact. but it was debatable. It was that way on both ends of the floor for both teams. I just told them that they had to show some grit, suck it up and that was the only thing I had for them. Bria [Dial] at the end, she forced that shot a little bit, but shooters are the only ones who know what to do in that exact time. I'm just so proud of them for gutting it out. Mercer did such a good job of crowding us and denying the ball tonight. We have to work a little more on our timing with the back door cuts. Props to them for playing a heck of a game, we just made a couple more shots."

On the play towards the end and of select players.
"They had a little momentum at the end and they probably felt like they had a really good shot and they did. They gave it to us with all they had. Our girls just decided to let it all out, maybe I wish they did a little sooner, but they did. I'm proud of them. I'm proud of Bria's effort for getting to the rim, and Eboni's [Williams] effort at the rim, too. She really finished a lot better today and was big spark for us. Lakelyn [Bouldin] was able to get some more points tonight and she did a good job against a longer and more athletic guard. I told her she had to play smarter and she did with the way she attacked and used the step back."

On Mercer running the floor and looking ahead to the final stretch.
"It's just one of the things they do well. They do push the tempo really well and they got us a couple times. There were a couple times where they tried to get us but we gutted it out and ran back in time. We have to be prapred for that next time. We got the win and we'll look at the next week. I'm just really proud of our girls. It's going to be a battle down the stretch."

NaKeia Burks, Sr.-G
On contributing in any way possible.
"I honestly just think of what I can do to help my team. If that's not offensively, that's perfectly fine. If it's cleaning up the boards, then I'll clean up the boards. If I'm just playing hard defense, that's what I'll do. That's a mindset that I have, and honestly, a mindset that we all have. If something isn't working, it's always about finding how else to contribute."

On what was tonight's key to victory.
"Every chance we had to huddle up, we said how we needed a stop. Offensively, we were there here and there but it wasn't consistent. We know on nights like this that we have to tighten up the defense and do whatever we have to do to pull out a win."

Bria Dial, Jr.-F
On the focus to help pull it out late.
"We just focused on defense, focused on us and doing the little things right. We didn't want to focus on them [Mercer]. There was a time where we couldn't score so we had to come together and focus on getting stops, and trying to score together."

On what to focus on moving forward.
"We just have to focus on us. We have to focus on turnovers a little bit. That's something we need to clean up before heading into the conference tournament, and if we do that, I think we'll be fine."