CHARLESTON, S.C. --- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team fell 56-50 to the College of Charleston in Southern Conference action Thursday night at the Carolina First Arena.
The Lady Mocs fall to 3-6 overall matching their record over the first nine games of the 1995-96 season. Chattanooga evens out its SoCon record at 1-1 while the Cougars move to 4-5 overall and 1-1 in league play.
Junior Whitney Hood (Meridian, Miss.) led the Lady Mocs with her second career double-double, dropping in 17 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Freshman Alex Black (Memphis, Tenn.) posted her second double-digit game of the year with 11 points, going 2-of-4 from long range.
The Cougars got out to a quick start, holding off Chattanooga with a 7-0 run to take a 9-3 lead with 15:06 to play in the first half. Chattanooga quickly reeled off a pair of 3-pointers from Black and sophomore Kayla Christopher (Oliver Springs, Tenn.) to tie it up 9-9 at 13:20.
The game would stay close the remainder of the half with Chattanooga grabbing a 23-22 lead on a 3-pointer from Christopher with 4:30 until half. After briefly relinquishing the lead, the Lady Mocs would get back out on top on a layup and one from Hood for UTC's largest lead of the game, 26-24 with 2:46 in the first half. Charleston regained the advantage and led 30-28 at intermission.
The Lady Mocs managed to tie the game twice in the second half with the second coming at 14:17. College of Charleston then outscored Chattanooga 19-6 over the next eight minutes to grab its largest lead of the game at 53-40 with 6:19 to play in the game.
Chattanooga reeled off seven straight points, capped off by a 3-pointer from freshman Taylor Hall (New Tazewell, Tenn.) who saw action tonight after becoming eligible on Wednesday. Her long ranger got the Lady Mocs to within six with 4:48 to play. However, a trey from Black would be all the scoring left for Chattanooga the remainder of the game.
The Lady Mocs shot just 33.3 percent from the floor and were 8-of-23 from beyond the arc and were 6-of-8 from the charity stripe. The Cougars outscored UTC 24-10 in the paint and 18-5 off turnovers despite being held to just 39.7 percent shooting.
Janae Smith led three Cougars in double figures with 16 points and had eight rebounds. Alyssa Frye scored all 12 of her points in the first half and Tonia Gerty had 10 points, eight rebounds and eight assists with no turnovers on the night.
Chattanooga will travel to Georgia Southern for a mid-day matchup against the Eagles in Statesboro, Ga. The Lady Mocs defeated GSU 87-80 on Dec. 4 at the Roundhouse in a regionally televised game. UTC set a SoCon record with 16 3-pointers against the Eagles.
The game will be carried live on ESPN 105.1 "The Zone" and Nick Bonsanto, filling in for the "Voice of the Lady Mocs" Larry Ward, will have the call. An campus-wide internet black-out will disable the video feed, but an effort to have live stats will be made by the Eagles' staff.
www.GoMocs.com
December 16, 2010
