Postgame Quotes
Chattanooga 69, Samford 63
Chattanooga, Tenn. | McKenzie Arena
Thursday, January 16, 2025
Deandra Schirmer, Head Coach
Opening Statement
"I think once we get into conference, every game is going to be a dogfight. I have a lot of respect for Coach Carley Kuhns. She's a big reason why I'm in this position today. She's been a mentor for me and also a friend. I feel like when you come into a game knowing that you got a team on the other end that's going to give you their best shot, to be able to withstand some of the blows that they were able to give us – I thought they shot the ball really, really well in the first half – and to withstand that a little bit and have the stamina to finish out a game and really be able to have great situational basketball down the stretch. I'm very, very proud of this group. I feel like the whole year we've been talking about 'oh, we're going to get there.' 'We're going to learn our lessons.' I thought you saw that down the stretch when it was a close game. We were able to stand up and make some huge adjustments and make some big plays down the stretch. And then we talked about, however teams are guarding us, we're going to have an advantage. Tonight we knew that Brooke (Anya) had an advantage, and, you know, she came in, we had a good conversation and I told her that I know what she's capable of. For her to not only believe in herself, but also play great defense on that end as well. Just proud of her effort tonight, and I know I'm going to hear about that three-point shot that she hit because she's been wanting to shoot threes for a while, so I know she's really excited about that three-point shot she made."
On Brooke Anya's three-point shot
"Well, the thing is, is that she knows this, but when she shot that three, that probably wasn't our best option, but we have this running joke on the team where, if it's a bad shot, if you make it, it's not a bad shot. So I was smiling to myself, because I knew that, she knew that that was probably not the best option we had on that look. And she was like, Hey, I made it so it was a good shot. So I knew she was feeling good about that, but also, you know, proud of her. She didn't skip a beat. She was sprinting back and got on defense and was stayed locked in."
On playing strong down the stretch
"We talked about our defense and our rebounding has to be our identity. And I really feel like when you're down late in the game, you think about, how are we going to score points? But our focus had to be we got to get the stop in order to score. If we keep allowing them to score the basketball, we're not going to be able to make up this deficit. And one of the things I'm really proud of is that this is the second game in a row where we have almost doubled our opponent in the fourth quarter. So we outscored them 22 to 10. And they might not like this comment, but we worked very hard on our conditioning. And so when we get in games like that, when it's a dog fight, when it takes a lot of will and a lot of grit, I know that our group is going to rise to that occasion. So for us to outscore them and really put on impressive fourth quarter defensively and offensively, I'm really proud of this group."
Brooke Anya, F/C, Gr.
On being celebrated by teammates for a good game
"It feels great. It's, a lot of stuff that happens behind the scenes, and we're celebrated all the time. It just so happened that everybody got to see it today. But we're a team that we celebrate every little moment for every single person on this team, because in order to win, we need everybody. It's not just one person."
