CHARLESTON, S.C. --- University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior Whitney Hood (Meridian, Miss.) scored 10 of her team-leading 16 points in the second half to lead the Lady Mocs to a 58-44 win over the College of Charleston Saturday afternoon at the TD Arena.
Chattanooga improves to 9-4 overall and runs its Southern Conference record to 4-0. The Cougars fall to 2-12 overall and 1-4 in SoCon play.
After playing even with the Cougars in the first half, the Lady Mocs started the latter stanza with a 12-5 run. Sophomore Taylor Hall (New Tazewell, Tenn.) started the half sinking Chattanooga's first free throw attempts of the game for a 31-29 lead. The Cougars responded with a 3-pointer from Christy Hewatt to give CofC the lead but Hood would put in a layup with 17:34 to play and the Lady Mocs would not trail again.
Hood hit a pair of free throws to push the lead out to 35-32. Hewatt's hit layup with 16:16 to play cut the lead to 35-34 but sophomore Faith Dupree (Knoxville, Tenn.) had an answer with six straight points to give Chattanooga a 41-34 lead with 11:11 to play in the game.
With 9:10 to play in the game, CofC's Latisha Harris hit a jumper to get the Cougars to within four points at 43-39, but the Lady Mocs would put together a 13-0 run over the next six minutes, growing its lead to 56-39 with 3:32 to play.
Harris broke the scoreless drought making one of two free throws and after a layup from Hood, made just one more free throw followed by a 3-pointer from Cathryn Hardy for the final score 58-44.
Harris led the Cougars with a game-high 19 points. Chattanooga did not have an answer for her in the first half where she went 6-of-10 from the field and 3-of-5 from the free throw line for 15 points in the period. The College of Charleston shot 48 percent in the first half, getting off to a hot start, but could only manage a 5-for-25 performance in the second half.
Hood had 16 points for the Lady Mocs, making 6-of-9 from the field and was 4-for-4 from the charity stripe. Hall led the Lady Mocs with 10 rebounds and just missed a double-double with nine points. Junior Kylie Lambert (Etowah, Tenn.) made a trio of 3-pointers for nine points and pulled down six rebounds, five on the offensive end, while junior Kayla Christopher who had a pair of huge 3-pointers, had six points and five assists.
Chattanooga outrebounded the Cougars 39-34 and went 8-of-27 from beyond the arc while hitting 8-of-9 from the free throw line. The Lady Mocs scored 20 points off 18 Cougar missteps but scored just six points on 12 offensive boards.
Charleston was 5-of-10 from the free throw line. Harris was 5-for-9 from the stripe with a double-double 19 points and 11 rebounds. Hardy had eight points for the Cougars with three rebounds. Jillian Brown dished out a game-high six assists.
Chattanooga returns to action Monday night at Georgia Southern. Note the game time change. The game is now set to tip off at 5 p.m. in a change made last week. The game will be carried live on ESPN 105.1 The Zone with air time being at tip off.
