Chattanooga
Idaho State
Lady Mocs Fall to Idaho State at Cancun Challenge
11/24/2011 11:55:00 AM | Women's Basketball
CANCUN, Mexico --- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team fell 65-62 to Idaho State in the opening game of the 2011 Cancun Challenge at the Moon Palace resort in Cancun, Mexico.
Junior Kayla Christopher (Oliver Springs, Tenn.) lead three Lady Mocs in double figures with 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting with three 3-pointers. Senior Whitney Hood (Meridian, Miss.) who saw foul trouble early, playing just one minute of the first half, closed out the game with 13 points, 11 in the second half.
Sophomore Taylor Hall (New Tazewell, Tenn.) closed out the game with 11 points and a team-high five rebounds. Hood, Christopher and junior Kylie Lambert (Etowah, Tenn.) each pulled down four boards and sophomore Meghan Downes chipped in six points.
In the first half, trailing 11-9, Downes hit a jumper to tie the game at the 12:53 mark sparking a 17-0 run capped off by a 3-point play from Hall to give Chattanooga its largest lead of the game at 26-11 with 6:21 to play in the half.
Idaho State, however, made a 16-6 charge of its own to cut Chattanooga's lead to 32-27 at halftime behind 10 points from Lindsey Reed who had 14 first half points and closed out the game with 19.
In the second half, the Bengals jumped out hard and quickly outscored UTC 9-3 over the first five minutes of the second half to lead 36-35 with 15:11 to play. Over the next 10 minutes, Hood put in all 11 of her second half points to get Chattanooga back to a tie. Her layup made it 55-55 with 5:13 to play.
Idaho State rebounded with six points to retake the lead for good. The Lady Mocs would get to within a point twice more behind Hall's shooting. Her 3-pointer with 2:10 to go drew Chattanooga to a 61-60 margin and a short jumper made it 63-62.
Chattanooga shot 38.7 percent for the game and was 6-of-20 from the 3-point line while making 8-of-10 from the free throw line. UTC was outrebounded by the Bengals 40-35 and had just nine assists.
Idaho State shot 43.9 percent from the field and shot 37.5 percent from the 3-point line making 6-of-16 attempts. The Bengals were 9-of-15 (60%) from the free throw line and were led in scoring by Kaela Oakes and Lindsey Reed with 19 points each. Cydney Horton had eight points and a game-high eight rebounds.
Chattanooga had a chance toward the end, but were unable to get the ball down in the final 7.6 seconds and fell 65-62. The Lady Mocs are 2-2 overall and will take on Cincinnati Friday at 5 p.m. in their final matchup of the Cancun Challenge. There will not be live stats and radio will be on 95.3 FM beginning right at 5 p.m. EST with no pre-game show.
Follow the action on Twitter.com/GoMocs throughout the game.
