Lady Mocs Down Wofford to Claim Share of SoCon Title; Hand Nabs Southern Conference Career 3-Point Record

2/23/2007 7:00:00 PM | By: GoMocs.com

Box Score and Play-by-Play

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- The Chattanooga women's basketball team downed Wofford 68-49 in front of 1,673 fans Saturday night to claim a share of its eighth consecutive Southern Conference regular season title at the McKenzie Arena.

The Lady Mocs close out the season at 15-3 in the SoCon, tied with Western Carolina for the regular season title, a first for the Catamounts. Western Carolina swept both games from UTC this season and earned the top seed in the conference tournament next week in Charleston, S.C. This marks the first time in eight years that the Lady Mocs have received a seed lower than first.

After both teams traded shots to open the game, Alex Anderson knocked down the first of her two 3-pointers in the game, sparking a 22-4 run to put the Lady Mocs up 24-6 at the 11:12 mark of the first half. Wofford's Liz Miller and Laura Depko hit a pair of treys to trim the lead to 14 at 26-12, but Laura Hall answered with a three of her own with 8:30 to play putting UTC up 29-12. Anderson closed out the half with a pair of shots to give UTC its largest lead of the half putting the Lady Mocs up 40-18 at the break.

The Terriers came out strong to start the second half, putting together an 8-2 run to cut the lead to 42-26 over the first 3:36 of the period, but Hall silenced Wofford with a pair of 3-pointers in an 8-0 run to push the lead to its greatest margin at 50-26 with barely more than five minutes played in the half.

Wofford would never get any closer than 18 the remainder of the game and Chattanooga would push its advantage to 24 twice more in the contest before claiming a 68-49 win, its closest contest with the Terriers since UTC won 74-56 at home on Feb. 11, 2004.

With 2:09 to play in the first half, Brooke Hand drained a 3-pointer to tie for UTC player Katasha Brown for the league career mark of 216. With 7:37 to play in the game, Hand hit her second to claim the record outright and finished with six points.

Anderson tallied her 16th double-double of the season with a game-high 17 points and 10 rebounds. Kristen Spann tied her career-best with 14 points and grabbed seven boards with three assists. Hall was the third Chattanooga player in double digits with 13 points going 2-for-2 from the 3-point line. She had five boards and a game-high four assists.

Miller led Wofford with 11 points. She had four rebounds and three steals. Kelsi Koenig had a team high five rebounds and Jennifer Weurding scored eight points and had two blocked shots. The Terriers were 19-for-52 from the floor and made just three from 3-point land. Wofford had 18 attempts from the charity stripe, but managed to convert just eight.

Chattanooga went 11-for-24 (45.8%) from beyond the arc and 25-of-56 (44.6%) from the floor. The Lady Mocs outrebounded the Terreries 42-28 and scored 15 second chance points off 12 offensive boards.

The loss drops Wofford into a tie with Georgia Southern and will be seeded sixth in next week's tournament. Chattanooga will tip it off at 10 a.m. Wednesday morning at the North Charleston Coliseum against the winner of the #7 Appalachian State/#10 Elon game played at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The Terriers will play either UNC Greensboro or Davidson on Thursday in the second game.

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