UTC women attack basket, surge late in SoCon victory
For the second straight game, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team lost the offensive rebounding battle with Mercer.
Only this time, the Mocs didn’t miss enough shots for it to hurt them.
Two days after an eight-point loss to the host Bears, UTC won 69-60 in Southern Conference play Saturday afternoon in Macon, Georgia. UTC secured the series split at Hawkins Arena despite the Bears grabbing 12 of their missed shots compared to eight offensive rebounds for the Mocs in the rematch.
The Mocs shot 54% from the field — a result of continually attacking attacking the paint, where they outscored Mercer 42-24 — and the contributions were balanced for UTC, which used nine players in the game. While no one scored in double figures for the Mocs in their 50-42 loss on Thursday, all five UTC starters did so Saturday: Abbey Cornelius had 14 points — along with 13 rebounds for the junior’s third double-double this season — Bria Dial and Sigrun Olafsdottir added 12 each and Amaria Pugh and Eboni Williams scored 10 apiece.
The Mocs (9-7, 4-3) lost the series opener in the final minutes, with the
Bears (11-5, 5-2) outscoring the visitors 8-0 over the final 1:43. This time it was the Mocs who pulled away in the final period, going on a 9-0 run and never letting their lead slip below four.
It’s the third consecutive series split for the Mocs, with the first two against Furman and Samford the past two weekends. UTC is on the road again for its next series, facing Wofford (9-5, 5-2) at 7 p.m. Thursday and 2 p.m. Saturday in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
“Now we’ve got to figure out how to put the two (games) together,” UTC coach Katie Burrows said on the postgame radio broadcast. “This is why some coaches don’t like this particular format, because you don’t have a lot of time to put in strategy, but you’ve got that chip on your shoulder and the second game is pretty immediate.”
Cornelius also had game highs with five assists and two blocks for the Mocs, who trailed 17-13 after the first quarter and 31-26 at halftime. Williams shot 4-for-5 and grabbed seven rebounds.
For Mercer, Shannon Titus had 27 points and three steals, Jada Lewis added 10 points with five assists and Jaron Dougherty scored nine with 11 rebounds.
MOCS STAR
Olafsdottir, who entered Saturday averaging 5.5 points per game in her first season with the Mocs, provided 12 crucial points on 5-for-6 shooting while playing all 40 minutes. Those points came on cuts to the basket and even from 3-point range — the 5-foot-9 freshman guard from Iceland who was shooting 25% from long range this season split her two attempts outside the arc against the Bears. That she was aggressive and looking to score made things easier for the rest of the team.
KEY STATS
In the game-changing fourth quarter, which started with the score tied at 44, the Mocs made 11 of 14 attempts from the field and executed at every turn while holding the Bears to 28% shooting.
TURNING POINT
It was the 9-0 run, which started after Amoria Tysor-Neal scored on a drive that put the Bears up 46-44 with 9:41 to play. UTC scored on four consecutive possessions, with Dial and Williams scoring a combined six points off layups and Olafsdottir connecting on a 3-pointer.
QUOTABLE
“I felt like we didn’t get the ball inside enough in the first game, but there were so many opportunities. They were playing a triangle-and-two (defense), but they couldn’t do that this time because we had other people that were becoming a factor.” — Burrows
“I told her before the game, ‘You’re probably not coming out as long as you’re not in foul trouble.” — Burrows on Olafsdottir, who played all 40 minutes for the second time this season.
FINAL THOUGHT
This was a good win for the Mocs, but it’s also a victory that has to be accompanied by some frustration because it encapsulates everything that could be trouble for them down the road. Where was that same level of effort and energy in the first game? This is a good team, but it’s also one that will never fully reach its potential as long as the inconsistencies remain.