ELON, N.C. --- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team spoiled the Southern Conference opener for Elon and their first-year head coach Charlotte Smith, Saturday night with a 59-46 win over the Phoenix at Alumni Gym.
Senior Whitney Hood (Meridian, Miss.), junior Kylie Lambert (Etowah, Tenn.) and sophomore Taylor Hall (New Tazewell, Tenn.) combined for 36 points and 27 rebounds in the win. Hall netted her second double-double of the year with 11 points and 10 rebounds while Hood scored a game-high 16 points. Lambert just missed a double-double with nine points and 10 boards.
Chattanooga improves to 4-3 overall and 2-0 in league play while the Phoenix drop to 2-4 overall with their fourth straight loss and 0-1 in the SoCon.
Elon jumped on the Lady Mocs early and led 10-5 at the 16:11 mark of the first half behind six points from Ali Ford.
Just over a minute later, Chattanooga sophomore Alex Black (Memphis, Tenn.) drained a 3-pointer with 14:52 to play in the first to spark a 13-1 run by the Lady Mocs. UTC took an 18-11 lead at the 8:07 mark of the half and never trailed again.
Elon would get close over the remainder of the half to get to within two points twice in the half and trailed 29-26 at intermission.
In the second half, the Lady Mocs outscored Elon 30-20, shooting 33.3 percent (10-of-30) and was 7-of-8 from the free throw line and shooting just 50 percent (3-of-6) in the first.
Chattanooga started the second half on an 8-2 run behind the scoring of Lambert and junior Kayla Christopher (Oliver Springs, Tenn.) to go up 26-37 with 16:55 to play. The Phoenix then went on a 10-3 run to cut UTC's lead to 40-38 with 14:10 to play. However, Chattanooga would put together another run of its own, 11-2, and push the lead to double figures midway through the second half at 51-40.
Ford led the Phoenix with 16 points and was the only player in double figures. Kelsey Evans had nine points while Lisa Archie had a team-high eight rebounds and Sam Coffer had seven.
Chattanooga outrebounded Elon 52-39 marking the second straight game UTC has pulled down more than 50 boards. UTC got 11 points out of its bench and outscored the Phoenix 16-14 in the paint while netting four fast break points.
The game wraps up the Lady Mocs' six-game road trip that started nearly 5,500 miles ago on November 13 in Waco, Texas. Chattanooga covered seven states and two countries over that time and went 3-3.
The Lady Mocs will take the next week off for exams before stepping back out of Southern Conference play hosting Kennesaw State in their first home game since hosting UAB in the season opener on Nov. 11. The game is set to tip off at 7 p.m. Sophomore Faith Dupree (Knoxville, Tenn.) will see her first action as a Lady Moc.
