Postgame Notes
Chattanooga 66, Troy 76
Chattanooga, Tenn. | McKenzie Arena
Thursday, November 14, 2024
 
Head coach, Deandra Schirmer
On the game tonight. 
"I feel like we knew this was going to be a dogfight. I have a lot of respect for Troy and the program that coach has built over there. They were ranked top 15 in the mid major poll at the beginning of the year for a reason. They're very physical. I feel like we did a lot of preparation going into this game, but you don't really know what it's like until you get into it, so it took us a little bit in the first quarter to kind of figure out what the physicality looked like, what that quickness looked like, and by the time we adjusted, it was too late. Credit to our team, I'm proud of them for how they fought back for us to win the following three quarters. I think this group is very resilient, but we also have to be focused and locked in. You can't just have, you know, fight and resiliency. You also have to have a preparedness. You also have to have an ability to come out in a game and do it from the tip, and that's what we've been talking about a lot in practice. As a coach, we're trying to go with our offensive lineup a little bit to try and get points and try to close that gap. But as far as you know, facing a team like that this early, it's only going to make us better down the stretch. I think there's going to be a lot of moments in film that we're going to be able to go back and watch, and we're going to be able to get better as a team because of this game."

On the dynamic of the team after losing Kalifa Ford in the preseason.
"Well, I think you're able to see how dynamic Caia (Elisaldez) is in our offense with her being a downhill threat and being able to just score 1v1 and that's the same thing with Kalifa. She's able to stretch the floor from three, but she's also able to be a mismatch for any any team that's out there. So then you have to bring two, and then when you bring two, you have knockdown shooters that are spread around. I think we're just trying to find some additional players that can really go get a bucket, 1v1 and they're going to have to bring some help. And for the time being, Sigrun (Olafsdottir) had a great start. We talked about her being more aggressive. I even saw her on the blocks today, which was good. She was posting up a little bit, which at the beginning, when I was recruiting her to stay, I told her I wanted her to post up, and I think that almost encouraged her to leave. So I'm glad she's doing that. But our freshmen are dynamic players. Our freshmen can can go get a bucket. I think that KK (Kailyn Farrell) played great tonight. I thought KK came in and gave us some big minutes. It's going to be getting this group confident in what we're trying to do. I think that scoring the 66 points we scored felt good when we were hitting shots. It was more of our defense on this side, and being a defensive coach, that's the frustrating piece. I want to go back and 24 points is the most points they scored in any quarter, and that was in the first so there's a few things that I wish I could have done differently to kind of stop the bleeding a little bit in that first. But when they're banking threes in sometimes it's their night."

Sigrun Olafsdottir, Sr., G/F
On her having to play a lot back when she was a freshman, and seeing that now for this year's group of freshmen.
"It's definitely good for them to get this experience now so they'll be ready for conference. They're doing great things, and they're growing every day. I'm just really proud of them for how they respond to everything."