Chattanooga Postgame Quotes
Chattanooga 70, Tennessee Tech 45
Cookeville, Tenn.
Wednesday, November 15, 2023
 
Head Coach Shawn Poppie
 
On the defense
"I was really proud of us defensively. We fouled a little bit in the first half. They obviously changed their philosophy in the second half and tried to pound it inside. We kind of waited till the quarter, brought some double teams there for a stretch and digs and it settled us back down and kind of threw them off rhythm a little bit again. I mean, they went 1-for-10 in the fourth quarter when we needed to get it. Really it's the turnover battle when we just lose our minds for no reason. Just like we did against Marshall. It happened again today, we just happen to play better defense afterwards."
 
On playing with a large lead
"You're up 20-something and I'm trying to run anything that says 'hold the dang ball'. I could have called a bunch of sets that had a bunch of passes but I thought we had lost our mind a little bit, so we did just a lot of dribbling and kind of unorthodox but a little bit that's on me. But I also was trying to let that clock go go go go go and just hold on in a sense, but do it the right way and got us to the free throw line. I mean a lot of good efforts."
 
On individual efforts
"Karsen [Murphy] 14 points, Raven [Thompson], 12 and five, Jada [Guinn] comes back to her home territory and gets us 15 and five, Hannah Kohn off the bench, another 12. There's a lot of people in there that did a lot for us. KK [Kailyn Farrell] had some good minutes. My voice sounds like this because I was screaming at her a little bit on the defensive. You know, we're just trying to do things the right way as we continue to learn and grow but to win by 25 on the road against the defending Ohio Valley Tournament champions. I think that we will take it good rebound win for us and we need a day of rest."
 
On the talent of the team
"I keep saying we are very very skilled and I'm looking over my playbook and I got just so many different options because we're skilled. We're working on the toughness piece, right? That stuff that we can control, that's where I was little disappointed. We had a little stretch there. There's some of our dumb turnovers are we we kind of lose our mind a little bit. When we are ourselves and we can be tougher on the defensive end, I don't think offense is going to be our problem. Not like it was a year ago. We're still relying on one or two people for sure."

*Postgame radio interview with Larry Ward.

Jada Guinn, Gr., G
 
On how she kept her emotions in check playing her former team.
"You talk about all of the outside things going on, and it's hard not to focus on that, but I just tried to focus on our gameplan and what I needed to do for the team. We just came off of a loss so we needed to try to bounce back from that. Ultimately the goal was just to continue to get us better."

On how she's benefited offensively since coming to Chattanooga.
"I've just trusted in them. I came here for a reason and it's to be the best player I can be. I just want to help this team win and I've taken on that role. They put me in good positions to be more of an offensive threat here, so I'm just trusting in them and taking on whatever role they ask of me for the team."

On how the team's start in the first quarter set them up for success the rest of the night.
"It was really big for us. In the Marshall game we were up by a lot and then we came out and didn't really get those shots. We shot like 50 percent when we played them and we did the same thing tonight against Tech, buit the difference was defensively tonight. We focused on getting those stops and our defense fuels our offense. We knew it was key for us to put our foot on their neck to finish this one off."

Karsen Murphy, Jr., F
 
On what led her to score the ball the way that she did tonight.
"One thing that I took into this game that was my main focus was my defense. I felt against Marshall I really let my team down with my defense and rebounding, so I wasn't going to let that be an issue tonight. For some reason when I focus on my defense, the offense just comes. I don't overthink and I just play. Getting stops and rebounds is what gives me momentum and what gives our team momentum for sure."

On how her emotional side came out tonight and how the team used it as fuel.
"Last time we came to Tech was two years ago and they 30-pieced us, which was pretty embarrassing. I knew that and had it in the back of my mind coming into this game. I didn't want the same outcome. Also, this is where Jada came from and I knew this was something where we needed to have her back today. Playing for her and playing together as a team was the ultimate goal tonight."

On holding Tennessee Tech to two points in the opening quarter.
"A lot of our philosophy revolves around getting defensive stops because that's what fuels offense. You can't rely on making shots because that's not always gonna happen, but if you're getting defensive stops then you're in the game all the time."