Lady Mocs Soar Past Eagles, 78-63, at McKenzie

1/21/2007 7:00:00 PM | By: GoMocs.com

Box Score and Play-by-Play

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- Alex Anderson led five Lady Mocs in double figures Monday night at the McKenzie Arena as Chattanooga claimed a 78-63 Southern Conference win over Georgia Southern in front of 1,217 fans.

The loss is the sixth straight for the Eagles who fall to 7-13 overall and 2-7 in SoCon play. The Lady Mocs improve their record to 14-6 overall and 7-2 in conference action and are tied at second in the league standings with Western Carolina who beat College of Charleston today in Cullowhee, N.C.

Anderson, who led all scorers with 17 points, played just eight minutes in the first half after picking up two quick fouls in 15 seconds. Kristen Spann knocked down a career-high 14 points and just missed her first career double-double with a game-high eight rebounds.

“We had some kids step up,” Lady Mocs head coach Wes Moore said. “Kristen Spann hit some big 3's for us. Ashley Huff knocked down some free throws then had a big steal for a layup.”

The Eagles got on the board first and outscored UTC 7-2 in the first three-and-a-half minutes of the game, but the Lady Mocs would not be denied and claimed their first lead of the night with a 12-0 run to go up 14-7 at the 13:20 mark before Anderson left the game.

“I struggled with whether or not to leave her out there and go to the zone where they couldn't isolate her so we'd at least have her on the offensive end,” Moore said. “At the same time, we were hanging in there close. You hate to have her pick up her third foul in the first half.”

Chattanooga had a scoring drought of its own after Anderson left the game going 0-for-5 and committing three turnovers as Georgia Southern closed to within one at 14-13 with 9:20 to play in the half. The Eagles led 20-16 with 4:03 to play in the half.

Tagan Hatchett drained a 3-pointer from the corner with 3:46 to play pulling UTC to within one. Ashley Huff followed that with a pair of free throws putting Chattanooga in front 21-20. Georgia Southern grabbed its third and final lead of the game on a layup by Ashley Rivens, but Huff's next two free throws would give the Lady Mocs the lead for good. Chattanooga went into intermission with a 30-24 lead.

The second half started with the Lady Mocs pushing the lead to 53-31 at the 13:10 mark with scoring from all five starters. Chattanooga would continue to pressure the Eagles leading by as much as 26 points at the halfway mark of the period.

“It didn't hurt having Alex Anderson back on the floor,” Moore said. “We're pretty confident that she's going to be successful one-on-one, but if they double down on her we can kick it out to a 3-point shooter.”

Hatchett, Spann and Brooke Hand each hit three 3-pointers as the Lady Mocs went 9-for-26 from beyond the arc, making five in the second half. Hand scored 11 points, had four rebounds and three assists while Huff and Hatchett each chipped in 10 points. Laura Hall just missed double figures with nine points. She grabbed four boards and dished out three assists.

The Lady Mocs never relinquished its double-digit cushion, but the Eagles did get as close as 68-58 with 4:13 to play in the game.

Carolyn Whitney led the Eagles with 16 points making 4-of-12 from beyond the arc and Tiffany Brown was 7-for-16 from the field for 15 points. Ashley Rivens had nine points for Georgia Southern and Ashley Melson pulled down a team-high six rebounds. Christa Waterman had five rebounds and two steals for the Eagles.

Chattanooga outrebounded the Eagles 36-33 but gave up 14 offensive boards for 13 GSU second chance points. The Lady Mocs committed 19 turnovers to Southern's 18, but UTC scored 26 points off the miscues to the Eagles' 20.

The Lady Mocs shot 49 percent on the night after a 64 percent second half showing and were 19-of-25 from the free throw line. The Eagles were 26-of-65 from the floor on the night for a 40 percent mark and made just 5-of-8 from the charity stripe.

The Eagles will travel to Greenville, S.C. to take on Furman at 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon while Chattanooga will hit the road for a two-game road trip beginning with a 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon matchup at Alumni Gymnasium on the Elon campus.

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