CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team extended its win streak to four games, its longest of the year, and knocked off league-leading UNC Greensboro 72-63 Saturday night in Southern Conference action at the McKenzie Arena.
The win moves the Lady Mocs to 7-8 overall and and into a tie for third in the SoCon at 4-2 with Samford. UNCG remains atop the standings at 8-6 overall and 5-1 in SoCon action followed by Appalachian State with a 4-1 league mark.
Junior Whitney Hood (Meridian, Miss.) led four Chattanooga players in double figures with a game-high 18 points and snared a career-high tying 13 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the year. Sophomore Kylie Lambert (Etowah, Tenn.) added 14 points and eight rebounds while sophomore Kayla Christopher and junior Tenisha Townsend each contributed 12 points. Townsend had career-highs on the night with four 3-pointers and eight assists. Christopher had 10 first half points and dished out a season-high six assists. Junior Bailey Dewart (Spartanburg, S.C.) just missed a double-double with nine points and eight rebounds.
The Spartans fired first hitting a 3-pointer to start the game, but the Lady Mocs put together a14-1 run to jump out to its largest lead of the first half at 14-4 with 14:22 until halftime. UNCG cut the lead down to five points three times in the period but Chattanooga would twice more build its lead to double digits and carry a 37-31 lead into intermission.
The Lady Mocs shot 51.9 percent (14-of-27) in the first half including five 3-pointers and closed out the game making 11-of-23 from beyond the arc.
In the second half, Chattanooga got a short jumper from Lambert followed by a trey from Dewart to get out to a 42-31 lead with less than two minutes elapsed in the stanza. The Spartans fought back getting a pair of layups form Janae' Stevenson and Dayshaun Richbow to cut the lead back to 42-35 at the 16:03 mark. Chattanooga stretched its lead back to 12 points on a jumper from freshman Taylor Hall (New Tazewell, Tenn.) and a 3-pointer from Townsend form the left side, going up 47-35 with 15:22 to play.
The Spartans held Chattanooga scoreless over the next four minutes and cut into the lead, but the Lady Mocs responded with eight straight points, including a pair of treys from Townsend, to grab its largest lead of the game at 54-41 lead with 9:45 to play. The game continued to bounce back-and-forth over the final 9:45 with the Spartans getting no closer than five but the Lady Mocs hung on for the win.
UNCG outscored Chattanooga in the paint 32-26 and had a 13-7 advantage on bench points. The Lady Mocs outrebounded the Spartans 42-38 and had 18 assists. The Spartans had just seven turnovers on the night, a season-low for any SoCon team.
Amanda Leigh, with a pair of 3-pointers, led the Spartans with 12 points while Monique Floyd had 11 points and a team-high seven rebounds. Dayshaun Richbow had 11 points as well and dished out a team-high five assists. Kendra Smith was the fourth Spartan in double figures with 10 points.
Chattanooga will be back in action Monday, Jan. 10 at 6 p.m. at the McKenzie Arena when they host Elon. The Phoenix outlasted Samford 47-42 in Birmingham, Ala., Saturday afternoon and are 3-2 in SoCon play. Live stats will be available along with live audio and video at Chattanooga All-Access on GoMocs.com. Larry Ward, the "Voice of the Lady Mocs", will have all the action live on 106.9 FM.
Despite the call for wintry weather in the Chattanooga area on Monday, the game is slated to go on as scheduled. Check with GoMocs.com for any changes that may occur.
