UNCG at Chattanooga
Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021
Chattanooga, Tenn. – McKenzie Arena
Postgame Quotes

Lamont Paris, Head Coach
Overall thoughts after 74-66 loss to UNCG.
"I haven't really evaluated the statistics yet, but it's shame because we did a lot of good things and played well for most of the game. We gave up too many offensive rebounds and second chance points, at some point you have to stop that. You work hard on defense, or you get lucky on defense, whatever, they miss and your job is to corral the rebound and then the possession is over. We didn't do that. I thought we played fairly well, and competed at a high level, for majority of the game. It's disappointing to not come out with a win."
 
On what caused UNCG's late run.
"I don't know. I don't know how those points came about. We made a run, we got to that point, and they responded. You just can't have an elongated run like that. It's basketball, it's a game of runs. It just can't be 15-point runs. You have to be able to stop the bleeding. You have to make it happen, manufacture it sometimes. Defensive rebounds do that a lot of the time."
 
On the offense stalling out and contributing to late Spartan run.
"There's no doubt about that. We were stagnant. We did run some good plays that got some good looks, and we wanted to continue running some of those plays. We just got frazzled on a couple play calls and we turned it over. We were grinding, it was churning, and then we threw it over the top and turned it over. To go four minutes of just missing shots, that doesn't happen too often. There has to be some turnovers involved in there or some bad decisions, and that contributed to the run."
 
On the play from Darius Banks.
"He was aggressive. He did some really good things attacking the rim. I think that's a real strength of his and this was the first time it came together and yielded a finished product. There have been some other ones where it was everything but the finish, this was the first day he was able to get there and do some of that stuff. I like that he was aggressive. That was a good thing and he was really effective around the basket."

Darius Banks, Sr.-F
On frustrating loss to UNCG.
"We didn't rebound well as a team and that's frustrating because we knew coming in they were a good rebounding team and we didn't stick to the game plan. I think that's the most frustrating part of today. It was so much of an instance that we went over it for an hour, just offensive rebounding. I guess you can do stuff in practice, but you have to apply it in the game. The game is what matters. We failed to that today."
 
On today's strong individual performance.
"I felt like I was more aggressive and felt like the team needed me to be more aggressive. That was an aggressive team we were playing and you can't take any possession off and be soft."
 
On coming together as a group.
"It's a team sport. You bring everyone together and say let's get a good shot, let's get something good, whether it's for that person or not. Whoever has the best look, just take it. If the shot is there, take it. If it's not, than don't. If we come together as a team and understand what the best shot for the team at that time is, then take it."
 
Malachi Smith, RS-So.-G
On what went wrong down the stretch.
"It was the same thing as Wofford. They got three offensive rebounds and hit threes. That's what happens when you give them three and four opportunities. We were up and then we couldn't get defensive rebounds and empty possessions."
 
On what needs to change.
"We have to be locked in for all 40 minutes, whether we are up or down, and play all the way through. We've came back from double digits before so you teams will always fight. We're in conference play and we need to compete for a full 40 minutes."
 
On the current lineup.
"We're very versatile. Everyone can dribble, pass and shoot. It allows us to do a variety of things on offense and be able to switch and guard multiple positions on defense. This is our second game with this lineup, so with the more games we play we'll get more comfortable and conditioned together."
 
On moving forward through adversity.
"This is going to show us what kind of team we are. We had plans at the beginning of the season of competing in the Southern Conference Tournament, it's not over. There's a lot of games left but at some point it has to start kicking in because we're not too far away from March. We need to come in the final stretch on a little streak so we need to turn it around soon."