Chattanooga Men's Basketball

Dec. 18 - at Murray State - CFSB Center

Postgame Quotes

Lamont Paris, Head Coach
Overall thoughts after loss to Murray State.
"It was a frustrating end for sure. They made some plays down the stretch but in the critical moments in the game, we didn't have shots go down and we had some turnovers. They had a guy who made a couple shots and that's why you have to play 40 minutes. It takes all 40 minutes. I think the end of the first half hurt us a bit too, it's all momentum. It's a long game but the psyche changes. It's just a different mindset and it effects guys in how they play."
 
On the defensive effort.
"At the end of the day, it's what you're doing as a unit. In the first half for the most part we did a really good job. 34 points minus a half court shot. It was still in route to something manageable. They got going, they hit some threes. A couple of them were hard, a couple were not. Those are the ones you have to try to limit, the not-so difficult ones. That's what I'm disappointed in most."
 
On the battle between two good mid-major teams.
"It's two good teams. I don't have any issue with how hard we played, we wanted to win and felt that. I felt that energy. Transferring that into what you do on the court is the challenging part. You have to channel that desire into discipline. That's the hardest thing to do because you want to win so bad, you play so hard, it's a hard thing to do especially against a good team like that."
 
On Wednesday night's non-conference finale against MTSU.
"MTSU is good and they're off to a good start. The pass the eye-ball test and they want to beat us because we beat them at their place last year. If we get in there and do our thing, handle our business, we'll be fine. This is why we scheduled like this for an experienced team, it's all about how you answer. You'll find out a lot over the next game or a couple games. We failed in this mission and we'll look to get back to it against MTSU."
 
Malachi Smith, So.-G
On defending Murray State and how to counter on offense.
"They run a lot of good sets which allows them to get open easily. I knew coming into the game that they would press and guard close, so I just had to attack and just keep being aggressive."
 
On what needs to improve heading into Wednesday.
"Rebounding is more of competing and wanting it more than the player you are boxing out and being more physical after the ball hits the rim."
 
A.J. Caldwell, R-Jr.-G
On defending a team like Murray State.
"They're a good team and they made some tough shots which allowed the crowd to get into it a bit. We were solid most of the game but got a little loose in the second half which allowed them to pull away. We just have to be better minimizing some of those runs and try to pull a full 40 minutes together on the defensive end."
 
On what to improve on before Wednesday.
"We just have to be solid. I think when our team is solid and focused we can do great things. We've shown what we can do against good teams, so we just have to put a full game together on Wednesday to give us some momentum going into conference play. Being at home should be good for that too."