Postgame Quotes
Chattanooga 67, Western Carolina 56
Cullowhee, N.C. | Ramsey Center
Thursday, January 9, 2025
 
Head Coach Deandra Schirmer
On the extended time off before Southern Conference play
"We talked a lot about how we had this time off, and we said, you know, we can look at it as a disadvantage, where we haven't played and everything like that, or we can look at it as an advantage. And we talked about, we're going to get real creative with this group. We have a really smart group, and we wanted to get creative with how we were going to be able to get an advantage against teams.
 
On the defense against Western Carolina
"And one of the things we talked about as an advantage was our defense. And this is a team that's averaging 70 points per game, and we held them to 56 which I don't know if that's their season low, but I'm sure it would be close to it. And so for us, you know, being able to do that. And then the other thing that I think I'm probably most proud about is that Western Carolina is a fantastic rebounding team, and the whole time we're talking about, if we out rebound them, we're going to win the game. If we out rebound them, we're going to win the game. And to out rebound them. 29-26 have 10 huge offensive rebounds down the stretch, winning play after winning play after winning play. And then, you know, we've, we've been in some tough situations, and we keep saying, Oh, we've made some rookie mistakes and down the stretch, and we've lost some close games, but I was really proud of how that paid off for us. It was a seven-point game with about two minutes left, and we were able to really bust it out and have that composure and take away some of their looks. And so for us, being able to have good situational basketball to finish out the game was I was really proud of as well."
 
On a different look to start of the fourth quarter
"Credit to Alexis Uffman. You know, we have our coaching staff. We're always looking for different angles and that was her project, was, 'hey, can we get a half court pressing zone that can really create some disruptiveness?', knowing that Caia and Sigrun and and Karsen and G and Brooke are all great defenders, and they can anticipate and look at some stuff. And I think when you have such a dynamic team like Western Carolina who can score the ball really, really well, you can't let them get into their stuff. And we tried a couple things. I don't think our zone looked good. Our two, three gave up a wide open three, which I was a little bit upset about. But as far as being poised down the stretch, I think that was the biggest, the biggest takeaway from this game that I'm so proud of this group.
 
Caia Elisaldez, So., G
On what it took to get the first win in the Southern Conference
"All we needed to do was fine tune things so that we knew how to work better together. I think the defenses that we put in, that we were able to do, they helped us, and they helped us prepare for this. So being able to, like, change it up and throw different things up Western [Carolina] was really good for us."
 
On how the tough games prepared for SoCon play
"For me, coming back from concussion, coming back from the losses, the tough losses we had everything and then as a team, coming back from the losses, especially ones that we knew we could have had. And it was our mistakes that had it. That week that we had last week, it prepared us. It helped us come together. We got a week off for Christmas break, which was longer than probably any team in the country, which is great for us, but also we knew coming back like we were going to work together, we had to make sure that our chemistry was right, so going into conference, and that's all we could do."
 
On having two weeks between games
"We got a week for us to reset. We had a tough non-conference, took some hard losses that hurt us, and we had that whole week to reset, go home, get our minds right, rest our bodies. I know it was a lot on a lot of us, and then coming back, we had that whole week to prepare. And I honestly, I wouldn't change anything that we've had the past few weeks. I think it's been great for us to build together. I think our practice is really focused on the key things that we needed to work on, and I feel like going into this conference schedule, we're really confident with our within ourselves right now, and I think that's the most important thing."