CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior Whitney Hood (Meridian, Miss.) led three Chattanooga players in double figures Wednesday night at the McKenzie Arena to lead the Lady Mocs to a 74-68 Southern Conference women's basketball win over Samford.
The Lady Mocs improve to 13-4 overall and remain undefeated in SoCon play at 8-0 while the Bulldogs saw a four-game win streak snapped, falling to 10-7 overall and 5-3 in league action.
Hood, the reigning SoCon Player of the Week, led all scorers with 21 points, marking her third straight game with more than 20 points. She added five rebounds and two steals. Juniors Kayla Christopher (Oliver Springs, Tenn. ) and Kylie Lambert (Etowah, Tenn.) each scored 12 points. Lambert also had a game-high seven rebounds and tied her season-best with four assists.
Chattanooga got out to a 9-2 start before the Bulldogs managed to tie it up 9-9 a few minutes later. Samford would tie it again, but Chattanooga would regain the lead and carry a 37-30 lead into intermission and never trail in the game.
Three times in the second half the Bulldogs cut Chattanooga's lead to just two points with the last coming at the 4:57 mark on a jumper from Jazmine Powers to make it 61-59.
Chattanooga answered that with six straight points to get out to a 67-59 lead with 2:44 to play. With 1:52 on the clock, Samford sank a pair of free throws by Powers before calling time to strategize its next move. Both teams missed 3-point attempts before senior Tenisha Townsend's (Antioch, Tenn.) shot clock buzzer beater under pressure broke the 70-point mark for the Lady Mocs making it 70-61 with 46 seconds to play.
Down the stretch the Lady Mocs, who started the game making their first 10 free throw attempts, went 4-for-8 from the charity stripe but held on for the win.
The Lady Mocs outscored the Bulldogs 30-20 in the paint and had a 19-9 advantage in bench points. Sophomore Alex Black (Memphis, Tenn.) went 5-for-6 from the free throw line and had eight points while sophomore Faith Dupree (Knoxville, Tenn.) put in six on 3-of-5 shooting in nine minutes while sophomore Meghan Downes (Newnan, Ga.) hit a huge 3-pointer midway through the second half, had five points. Townsend tied her season-high with six assists
Samford had four players in double figures lead by Paige Anderson's 16 points. Powers had 14 points and a team-high six rebounds while Ruth Ketcham had 11 points, six rebounds and four assists and Taylor Reece scored 10.
Samford won the turnover battle, forcing 11 from Chattanooga while giving up just seven of its own. The Lady Mocs outrebounded the Bulldogs 37-27 and shot 50 percent (25-50) from the field. After a hot start at the free throw line, the Lady Mocs ended up making 16-of-23 (69.6%).
The Lady Mocs will hit the road to take on Appalachian State Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Holmes Center. The game will be aired live on ESPN3.com. Larry Ward, the "Voice of the Lady Mocs", will have all the action live on WPLZ 95.3 FM.
