CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- Chattanooga defeated Wofford 78-72 in Southern Conference women's basketball action at the Benjamin Johnson Arena to grab its 10th consecutive win of the season.
The Lady Mocs improve to 15-6 overall and 10-2 in SoCon action while the Terriers fall to 3-15 overall and 2-9 in league play.
After trailing 32-31 at halftime, the Lady Mocs outscored Wofford 27-15 for their largest lead of the game at 58-47 with 8:51 to play. However, the Terriers' Kristin Bradley would let loose five 3-pointers to keep Wofford close.
After Wofford took a quick 9-3 lead over the Lady Mocs to start the game, freshman Kayla Christopher (Oliver Springs, Tenn.) drained her second long range bomb at the 16:23 mark cutting the lead to 9-6. Wofford's Mahagony Williams hit a lay up to put her team up 11-6, but redshirt freshman Michelle Davis (Cleveland, Tenn.) had an answer with back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Lady Mocs their first lead of the game 12-11 with less than five minutes gone.
Chattanooga quickly put together a 10-0 run for its largest lead of the first half at 22-14 with 9:34 until halftime on the strength of eight points from senior Jenaya Wade-Fray (Madison, Ala.).
Wofford outscored the Lady Mocs 18-9 over the remainder of the period to take a 32-31 lead and Chattanooga trailed at the intermission for the seventh time this season.
The Terriers got out to a 36-32 lead, its largest of the half, to start the second half. Senior Shanara Hollinquest (Sylacauga, Ala.) hit her first field goal of the game at the 16:41 mark of the second half and capped off a 12-7 scoring advantage by Chattanooga with a pair of free throws to give Chattanooga a 44-43 lead with 12:41 to play.
The Lady Mocs would not relinquish the lead and go on to claim its 10th consecutive win and seventh against SoCon teams. Over the next 2:53, the Lady Mocs went on a 14-4 scoring run to take a 58-47 lead with 8:51 remaining in the game.
Bradley brought the crowd to its feet with the first of her five treys to cut the lead to 58-50. Davis hit a jumper on the other end and Bradley answered with back-to-back 3-pointers followed by a layup from Williams and Chattanooga's lead was in jeopardy as the Terriers made it a two-point game, 60-58, with 6:25 to go.
The Lady Mocs got a little breathing room with 3-pointers from sophomore Tenisha Townsend (Antioch, Tenn.) and Davis to go back up 66-58 with 5:20 to play. Bradley cut into that lead again following a layup from teammate Natalie Gramblin and the Terriers pulled to within three points with 4:22 remaining.
Davis and Christopher again had a response with a pair of 3-pointers stretching the lead back to nine, 72-63, with 3:47 to play. Bradley's fifth 3-pointer, however, would get the Terriers close again trailing by four with just less than three minutes to play.
The two teams answered point-for-point over the next 1:17 and Christopher closed out the game with a pair of free throws with 10 seconds to play and the Lady Mocs would get the 78-72 win.
Wade-Fray led the Lady Mocs with 19 points and had five rebounds, three assists and two steals. Davis just missed her career-high with 16 points, six boards and a pair of steals. She did, however, hit a career-best four 3-pointers. Christopher had 15 points for UTC and six rebounds to go along with three assists and three steals. Hollinquest was the fourth Chattanooga player in double figures with 11 points and six rebounds and three assists.
The Lady Mocs drained a season-high 12 3-pointers and were 12-of-27 for a 44.4 percent shooting effort from beyond the arc. After shooting just 30 percent in the first half, went 16-of-28 (57.1%) in the second.
The Terriers won the battle of the boards, 39-35 and had 16 offensive rebounds to the Lady Mocs' 13. Chattanooga scored 29 points off 20 Wofford turnovers.
The Lady Mocs return to action Saturday at 5 p.m. in the first game of a double header hosting the Elon Phoenix. All the action can be heard live on the Chattanooga athletics' flagship station ESPN Radio 105.1 "The Zone". Live stats, video and audio streaming will be available at the official website of Chattanooga athletics, GoMocs.com.
