Gilliam grabs six-shot edge
Reigning champion Ashley Gilliam of Manchester added two strokes to her lead with a 4-under-par 68 Wednesday in the 55th Tennessee Girls’ Junior Amateur Championship at Old Fort Golf Club in Murfreesboro. At 135 for 36 holes, the Tullahoma High School senior had a six-shot cushion going into today’s final round. If she holds on, the Mississippi State University commitment will match current MSU player Aubree Jones of Covington with back-to-back Tennessee Girls’ Junior titles. Jones won in 2014 and 2015. Gilliam, whose mother won the tournament in 1989, begins play Monday in the U.S. Girls’ Junior in Pebble Beach, California. So does McKinley Cunningham of Clarksville, who remained second at Old Fort at 141. Kingsport’s Kara Carter was third at 143, Franklin’s Angelina Chan was another four strokes back in fourth place, and Cleveland’s Hannah Nall was ninth at 151 with Charleston’s Rheagan Hall and Signal Mountain’s Lindsey Hollis tied for 10th at 152.
BASKETBALL
› The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team will open its Southern Conference schedule for the 2018-19 season with a Jan. 12 visit from East Tennessee State University and play twice more at McKenzie Arena — versus Wofford on Jan. 17 and Furman on Jan. 19 — before its first league road game Jan. 24 at Mercer. That visit to Macon, Georgia, will be a test against the 2017-18 regular-season and conference tournament champions. The Bears are the only team besides UTC — which has five undefeated SoCon seasons — to accomplish such a sweep. UTC, which finished third in the SoCon standings last season, will then head to Samford (Jan. 26) before hosting Western Carolina (Jan. 31) and UNC Greensboro (Feb. 2) to complete the first half of the league schedule. The home-heavy front half will be repaid with plenty of road trips for the Mocs in February, starting at 2017-18 league runner-up ETSU (Feb. 9) and followed by visits to Furman (Feb. 14) and Wofford (Feb. 16) before home games against Samford (Feb. 21) and Mercer (Feb. 23), with the latter senior day for the Mocs. UTC’s final two regular-season games are at UNCG (Feb. 28) and at Western Carolina (March 2). UTC’s complete schedule for its first season with former player and longtime assistant Katie Burrows as head coach has not been announced, but two high-profile home games have been — the season opener against Louisville on Nov. 9 and a Dec. 21 matchup with North Carolina State, which is coached by former Mocs coach Wes Moore. Burrows played under Moore at UTC and was later a member of his staff. “Conference play should be competitive again this season,” Burrows said in a UTC release announcing the SoCon schedule Wednesday. “Our tough nonconference schedule will have us prepared for January. I’m looking forward to an exciting year.” Tickets for the season are on sale at the McKenzie Arena box office and GoMocs. com.
SOCCER
› What the Chattanooga Football Club hopes is a busy few days at Finley Stadium begins tonight when the CFC men host the Georgia Revolution at 7:30. CFC, with seven regular-season titles in the National Premier Soccer League South Division’s Southeast Conference this decade, is trying to get past the Revolution tonight in a conference playoffs semifinal so it can host the conference title match Saturday night, with the winner advancing to next week’s region playoffs. The Revolution finished sixth in the conference to set up its trip to Chattanooga. CFC lost 4-2 when the Revolution visited in June but avenged the defeat with a 3-0 win in Georgia last week. “We believe we have the best fans around, and we need them all there on Thursday to cheer on the boys to victory,” CFC general manager Sean McDaniel said in a news release Wednesday announcing the playoff opponent. “We are excited to have the opportunity to host the semifinals match at Finley and are hoping for great results tomorrow, because the boys have put in a lot of effort to get here.”