CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team climbed two more spots in this week's AP Top 25 poll to 21st and held off Wofford with a 68-41 Southern Conference win at McKenzie Arena.
The Mocs improve to 21-3 on the year with its 17th straight win, Chattanooga's sixth longest win streak in school history, and remain unbeaten in league play at 9-0. The Terriers fall to 7-17 overall and 2-7 against the conference.
Sophomore Jasmine Joyner (Southaven, Miss.) recorded her fifth double-double of the year with a game-high 18 points and 11 rebounds. She was 6-of-7 from the free throw line and had a career-best four assists to go along with a pair of steals and four blocked shots. She has a school-record 97 blocked shots and moves to third on the SoCon single season list.
Senior Ka'Vonne Towns (Lilburn, Ga.) went 3-of-6 from the 3-point line for 11 points with three assists, two blocked shots and two steals. Sophomore Chelsey Shumpert (Paducah, Ky.) had 11 points with four rebounds, four assists as well as a blocked shot.
Foster rotated the bench early and often throughout the game with all but one player getting double-digit time on the court. Chattanooga's bench accounted for 17 points led by sophomore Moses Johnson's (Atlanta, Ga.) seven points and seven rebounds. Sophomore transfer Sydney Vanlandingham (Heritage, Tenn.) matched her career-high for rebounds with six in 16 minutes and added four points off the bench.
Wofford led just once in the game on a 3-pointer by Jordan Frazier to give the Terriers a 3-2 lead. Joyner hit a jumper 20 seconds later and the Mocs never trailed again. Chattanooga outscored Wofford 30-7 over the rest of the period and carried a 32-13 lead into halftime.
The second half saw the Mocs' largest lead of the game at 52-28 on a 3-pointer from Towns with 8:22 to play. The two teams traded points through the remainder of the game for a final 27-point margin at 68-41.
In the paint, Chattanooga held a large advantage outscoring Wofford 34-16 and had 16 points off 14 offensive boards compared the Terriers eight oints off 11 offensive rebounds. Each team forced 13 turnovers but UTC capitalized on the miscues with 13 points compared to Wofford's five.
Chanel Stokes led the Terriers with 13 points while Jordan Frazier, ranked third in the league for scoring, was held to just five points on the night. Maria Corella sank a pair of 3-pointers and had eight points while three players had a team-high four rebounds each.
The win is the 43rd consecutive SoCon regular season win for the Mocs, a school-record, and its 10th straight win at home, seventh best streak for UTC. Chattanooga has won 50 of its last 51 games at home after falling earlier this season to No. 25 South Florida.
In just his second season at the helm, Chattanooga Head Coach Jim Foster secured his 50th win and now has 833 over his career.
The Mocs remain at home to host UNCG Saturday at 3 p.m. in the opening game of a doubleheader with the men who will host Samford at 6 p.m. The game will be carried live on the flagship station of the Mocs, 96.1 FM The Legend. Live scoring, streaming audio and video are available at GoMocs.com.
