Offense wakes up after halftime as Mocs cruise
It was a tale of two halves for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team against Tennessee State on Wednesday night at McKenzie Arena.
Sure, UTC won both of them, but the second looked decidedly different from the first.
After a first half of porous shooting, the Mocs exploded for 28 points in the third quarter against the Tigers, making 10 of 14 shots, including all six from 3-point range. That led to a 21-point lead after three periods for a 60-31 victory and a 2-2 record early in Shawn Poppie’s first season as coach.
Yazz Wazeerud-Din finished with 25 points, all in the second half. After missing her first 10 shots — and first nine from 3-point range — the senior guard was 9-for-11 in the second half and 5-for-6 from beyond the arc.
“I wasn’t concerned because we weren’t giving up shots that we weren’t hoping for,” Poppie said. “They were taking shots that we were wanting them to take. We’re going to score, the lid is going to come off at some point. It’s a little nerve-wracking, but we got going.”
Abbey Cornelius had a solid night with 18 points, seven rebounds and a pair of blocks, and Addie Porter finished with seven assists and seven rebounds.
After taking a 16-12 lead into the locker room, the Mocs got a jolt to start the second half from Raven Thompson. The freshman forward scored the first points of the third quarter, then grabbed a steal and had an offensive rebound and passed to Cornelius for a foul-line jumper. Wazeerud-Din then got going from deep, making the first of her five third-quarter 3-pointers.
UTC shot 39% from the field for the game, but that rate was 61% (14-of-23) in the second half. That was aided by a solid performance on the defensive end, where the Mocs turned 25 turnovers by Tennessee State (2-2) into 29 points.
It also helps after a pair of narrow losses last week to Belmont in Nashville, 56-54, and at home against Austin Peay, 58-53, games in which the Mocs had leads in the fourth quarter.
“This win gives us a lot of confidence after last week,” Cornelius said. “We could have gone 3-0 and we got a little down, but to have this win under our belts gives us a lot of confidence in knowing how good we truly are.”
UTC’s next game is at 7 p.m. Saturday at Murray State (1-1).