Postgame Quotes
Chattanooga 84, Wofford 67
Spartanburg, S.C. | Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium
Saturday, March 2, 2024
 
Head coach, Shawn Poppie
On getting the win after trailing early
"They threw a punch at us fast. I'm not sure we wanted to start this thing minus 16 in the first five minutes, for sure, but if there's a time to do it, I wouldn't mind it early in the game. It remined me very similar of last year – here. They threw a punch at us hard. They were ready to play. We weren't. Some of that is totally on me. We had a scouting report that we liked, but we knew what Plan B would be and they dominated Plan A fast and so we adjusted. We went small the last 35 minutes of the game which I thought was gonna give them fits. I didn't think we'd have to go into it as fast as we did. We just had a fog, a glaze across our eyes early on, but credit to them. They did a heck of a job early on. Obviously Clark came right at us early and often in really what is their fourth or fifth option. It was really good for this team. We got punched hard and that's the hardest we've been punched all year. There was a challenge to them in the timeout. 'Is this us or are we willing to fight and punch back?' It took a lot of energy and effort but I'm proud of a lot of dang kids in that locker room, but it continues to show who they are. That's a 38-point swing in one basketball game. That's pretty darn impressive."
 
On individual play
"I thought we shot the all in rhythm. Addie Grace [Porter] went 2-for-8. I thought everyone she shot was going in. Five assists and no turnovers, that's leadership there. How about our two freshmen? Seven-for-14 from the floor, eight rebounds, five assists, two turnovers combined. Hannah [Kohn] +23, Caia Elisaldez +16. That is big time production when it was much needed while we went super small. I thought they kind of got into a rhythm there in the middle to end of the first half of our conference and then it slowed down a little bit. But they've stuck with the process and came up when we really needed them today.
 
"Jada Guinn, 27 points. I thought she got off to a really slow start. Raven Thompson's fighting some foul trouble early on. She gives us 15 [points] and eight [rebounds]. I mean all the way down. Sigrun Olafsdottir, she was burying them to get us back into it early on, 4-for-6 from three. You shoot 58% from the field, 50 percent from the 3-point line and 86 [percent] from the free throw line, it's hard to lose, that's for sure."
 
On having five in double figures
"I thought we played a little bit quicker. We spread the floor out and it's very similar how we played tonight like we did at Lipscomb. We really scored the ball well there. It's our best offensive lineup. I told Hannah Kohn this after the Furman game, she should have played more but my mindset has been defense, defense, defense and I'm going off a trust level of 20-something games. You've got to continue to prove to me when you're out there, you're gonna do it and I went with it today. She did an unbelievable job of executing the scouting report defense, competed. When she does that,  we are our best offensively when she is on the floor. The kid is phenomenal. She's getting a feel of when to and when not to and how to put it on the floor and make plays that give us that kind of third dynamic threat. I'm really proud of Caia as well."
 
On the end of the season and heading into SoCon
"13-1, undefeated on the road for the entire year. You'll never be able to take that away from this group. That's really, really special. But now it's time to reset. We go to Asheville and the three most important games of the year are on our schedule now. I'm glad we left it this way. They're gonna leave that locker room with a lot of confidence. Knowing who we are, that we just took somebody's punch hard and we can handle it. Proud, proud coach and I look forward to seeing all you Moc fans up in Asheville next week."

Jada Guinn, Gr., G
On the team rallying around each other after the slow start.
"I think it just shows the character of this team. We didn't start off the way we wanted to but we knew what we needed to do to come back. We stayed together, buckled down defensively, Si (Sigrun Olafsdottir) hit some huge shots for us and that gave us some momentum. We knew to just stick together ad it's worked for us all year."

On if playing against Wofford and Rachael Rose helps bring the best out of her.
"I definitely think that as a competitor when you play against these kinds of teams. Si (Sigrun), Kars (Karsen Murphy), Addie (Porter) hadn't won at Wofford before, so I kind of just took that a little bit personal for them. Playing against Rachael Rose, she was picked Preseason Player of the Year so as a competitor that just brings the best out of me and it does the same thing for our team."

On the mentality heading into the SoCon Tournament.
"Just taking it one game at a time. We obviously know who we could potentially play, but we're just focusing on that first game and locking in on some of those little things we didn't do throughout the regular season. We're just gonna prepare the best way we can."

Sigrun Olafsdottir, Jr., G/F
On her three-pointers falling and helping spark the comeback.
"I'm just super proud of the team for coming back because we did it together. I think the biggest part was just getting stops on defense and then pushing on offense. That really got us going."

On the mentality heading into the SoCon Tournament.
"I think we just have to stay together. If we play our game I think we can beat anyone in our conference. Just be us, stay together no matter what happens and have confidence in ourselves."

Caia Elisaldez, Fr., G
On the team staying together and swinging the momentum.
"Honestly all of the coaches have been preaching to us that defense travels, so we just had to trust that first. We wanted to make sure first that we locked up on the defensive end and got the stops we needed to get. Offensively we just continued to trust in one another because we knew eventually the shots would start to fall and that we were making the right reads and moving where we were supposed to be moving. All in all we stuck together through it and that's what really mattered."

On how she gains confidence when guarding Rachael Rose.
"For me personally, I know that my defense helps start my offense up. I took a lot of pride in guarding her the first time and that's something I continue to take pride in every game. Going into this one, it was great to see that I was frustrating her because it means that I'm doing my job. It also meant even more to me because it meant I was helping my teammates and making it easier for them."

On her mentality going into her first SoCon Tournament.
"My mentality, along with the team's, is to just use this momentum and keep building off of it. We won the last two and I think we all know that we need to use this when we got into it. We keep saying that defense travels so that's what we're going to focus on. For me personally I'm going to do everything in my power to stop anyone I can on defense and then offensively I'm gonna let it flow. I just know we're gonna stick together through it."