Postgame Quotes
Chattanooga 59, #21 Mississippi State 53
Chattanooga, Tenn. | The McKenzie Arena
Sunday, December 3, 2023
 
HEAD COACH SHAWN POPPIE
On getting the win over #21 Mississippi State
"So proud of our kids. They've put so much work in. It's fun watching them just slowly get better and believe a little bit more and a little bit more. Obviously, that's a really, really good Mississippi State team. I know they're battling some injuries. Some sickness, possibly. But it's a really good basketball team. It's gonna win a lot of games. I thought we executed very, very well in the sense of a game plan. You know, we kind of got to halftime, I thought we let them go on a handful of runs that were some things that I thought we could control. We get into the second half. I thought we played much, much better, but it started with Jada Guinn and Raven Thompson. I thought they were a lot more aggressive in the second half. But a lot of different things that could go on in the sense of proud of individual efforts, but ultimately, I thought we were a really good team - basketball team - today."
 
On the fan support – attendance: 2,170
"The fans, thank you so much for coming out. You could feel it, you could hear it and I thought it played a big, big part to kind of carry us over into getting a victory there versus, again, a really good Mississippi State team."
 
On the game plan for Mississippi State
"It was a big time personnel scout. They have a couple that can really, really shoot it. Zero [0] is a really good shooter. 21 can really really shoot it. From then everybody else we really try to get in really strong gaps and force as many contested jump shots as we could. The other piece is, is the amount of possessions. I thought we played at a tempo that we could survive. There's been a couple games this year they played in 77 possessions and they took 46 shots and only 12 free throws. So the possession game allowed us to be able to play in a half court because that's the other piece. I think they play a lot in transition. We made it a half court game and I thought if we did that we would have a chance."
 
On Mississippi State missing some starters.
"It's interesting because for their sake, they're playing down a couple kids, but for us we don't know if they're coming back today or not. So we had a game plan if they were back then we had another game plan if they weren't. 24 was back today. She did not play against Miami so that gave them another big. I felt like if they were not they would still be pretty small, which for us, when we saw they go small lineups they switched a lot. So for us it was trying to get into the switching. Throw the ball to Raven [Thompson] and then play off of Raven, because it was similar size. When the Bigs were with them, they don't switch as much so we're going to try to run different actions. I thought early on we were very hesitant when we tried to get the ball to the right places, almost like running the spots instead of running the bodies and then playing and then worrying about maybe their athleticism trying to get foul calls instead of just being basketball players. I thought the adjustment in the second half wasn't as much of what we ran. It would just tighter right more confident. And but yes, there was an emphasis to try to get it in there and play out of Raven in the post and then spread it out and try to get Jada [Guinn] into some ball screens where they would switch for somebody that we thought we had an advantage."
 
 
HANNAH KOHN, freshman guard
On the feeling of the win
"Like no other. Obviously, I'm a freshman. I've never experienced anything like this. I think this is one of my favorite games in my career, ever. Especially starting my first year out and playing a ranked team like this. It's indescribable feeling for me, I would say."
 
On what makes the Mocs special
"I would say how together we are. I think a lot of teams like to just go based off skill or talent and yes, we have talent and we have skill, we have that, but I think the difference is our team plays together plays for one another or that's our goal."
 
On playing with adversity
"I think, like I said, it goes back to all of us being on the same page, staying locked into our scouting our game plan and just having a fight in us not like not letting up and not doing anything. Just keep playing how we've been playing and yeah, I think that's what did it."
 
 
RAVEN THOMPSON, sophomore forward
On getting the win over #21 Mississippi State
"It means a lot. It's like what Hannah said, it's indescribable. We knew we had a big game coming up and we knew we just had to fight no matter what. No matter what the score was what it was. We just knew we had to fight for each other and play together."
 
On the difference from last year to this year
"I was just getting comfortable last year, so I didn't show much emotion, but this team, they WANT me to show more emotion to get them going. I have to do that for them. Just being around them is fun and they allow me to be myself."
 
On getting ready for Mississippi State after squeaking out a win at Kennesaw State
"Just going at it, just getting back to it. We can't harp on Kennesaw State. It wasn't our best but we knew we had Mississippi State coming up and we knew we had to play a lot better."