UTC women have shot at SoCon crown

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team inched closer to at least a share of the Southern Conference regular-season title and the top seed in next week’s league tournament with a 62-44 win Thursday night at Western Carolina.

The Mocs (17-11, 9-4) will finish the regular season Saturday at UNC Greensboro, which defeated East Tennessee State 58-49 Thursday night to improve to 14-13 and 7-6 in league play while knocking the Buccaneers (21-8, 8-5) into a tie with Mercer (12-14, 8-5) for third in the eight-team SoCon standings. UNCG (14-13, 7-6) and Samford (13-15, 7-6) are tied for fourth.

If UTC wins Saturday and Wofford (19-8, 9-4) loses, the Mocs will earn the title outright; if both teams win, the Terriers will take the top seed by virtue of a season sweep of the Mocs. Wofford hosts Mercer at 2 p.m., while UTC’s game at UNCG is at 4.

UTC would actually be in prime position for the title had it not been for a Jan. 28 home loss to the Catamounts (9-19, 2-11), who are tied for last in the SoCon with Furman (10-18, 2-11). The Mocs did their best to make up for that setback Thursday night by forcing 25 turnovers — 10 by Catamounts point guard Kyra Allison — and turning those into 25 points.

Mocs coach Shawn Poppie credited the defense of sophomore guard Sigrun Olafsdottir, who finished with six steals, for limiting Allison, who had eight points and two assists.

Yazz Wazeerud-Din had 23 points and knocked down four of UTC’s six 3-pointers, while Addie Porter had 15 points and five rebounds. Abbey Cornelius battled foul trouble throughout yet managed seven points, eight rebounds and four assists.

Wazeerud-Din added three steals to a defensive performance that kept Western Carolina from having a single scorer in double digits. Zanoria Cruz and Tamori Plantin had eight points apiece.

The Mocs led 21-8 after a quarter and had built a 14-point edge before the Catamounts stormed back, cutting the lead to 31-25 before Raven Thompson found Wazeerud-Din for a 3-pointer before halftime. The lead was quickly built to double figures in the third quarter, and the Mocs cruised the rest of the way.

“Tonight was a good response after last weekend,” Poppie said, referring to last Saturday’s 72-53 loss to Wofford on senior night. “Now we have to build on that with one more to finish this thing out. We’ve got our hands full up at their place (at UNCG) on senior night, and let’s go see if we can ruin somebody else’s since we got ours ruined last week.”