The UTC women's basketball 2003-04 season started 2-1 with wins over UAB and Louisville at home and a loss to No. 3 Tennessee in Knoxville.
 
However, it was a loss to Butler in the Thanksgiving Classic in Florida that set off a magical run.
 
That loss triggered a change in the starting lineup, putting seniors who had paid their dues and had three conference titles under their belt, on the bench. Head coach Wes Moore filled the lineup with three sophomores who would become household names by the end of the season.
 
It worked. Setting off a school-record 27 game win streak – the longest in the nation that year – that came to a close with the Mocs' win over Rutgers in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. It still stands as UTC's longest win streak in program history.
 
"It wasn't talked about much," Katie Galloway Burrows, current UTC head coach and member of the 2003-04 team said of the streak. "We all knew it was there, but we never spoke about it. To win the first round game made it that much sweeter, but we still didn't talk about it.
 
"Obviously when Vanderbilt got us that last game it was 'O.K. That was pretty amazing what we just did.'"
 
Only seven members of the Mocs' squad saw the playing time against Rutgers. Katasha Brown, a sophomore, played all 40 minutes and junior Tiffany Patton, the Mocs' tallest player on the court at 6-2 was on the floor for 39 minutes.
 
It was a team effort by the Mocs who had to face great individuals on the Rutgers team that included future WNBA players Cappie Pondexter, Chelsea Newton and Michelle Campbell.
 
"My senior year, there was just something special. The chemistry of the team," Burrows reflected. "We were low in numbers, we had injuries like Shamya [Sermons] getting hurt.
 
"All of a sudden you are seeing success after success. We were beating teams pretty handily, even through the conference tournament. It was pretty amazing what we were able to do with such small numbers."
 
Five scored in double figures for Chattanooga and Patton was just shy of a double-double with nine points and a game-high 10 rebounds. Sophomore Tiffani Roberson had a team-high 15 points and pulled down nine boards, just missing her fourth double-double of the year.
 
Chattanooga struggled in the opening half, making just one from beyond the 3-point line in 10 tries and shooting just 30 percent in the half.
 
Rutgers, shooting 53.6 percent in the half, led by as much as 11 points as the game neared halftime.
 
Back-to-back layups and three free throws gave UTC a 7-2 advantage in the final 2:52 and cut the Scarlet Knights' lead to six at intermission.
 
UTC gave up a pair of free throws to start the second half, and managed to pull to within a point, 37-36 on a layup from Roberson one minute and four seconds into the period.
 
Rutgers pushed its lead to five points with 17 minutes to play, but Brown tied the game twice in the next 2:33 before free throws from Roberson gave the Mocs' the lead for good with 12:36 to play.
 
It was a lead that never got past six points and was as close as a single point twice. After a 3-pointer by Nikki Jett cut UTC's lead to 49-48 at the 11:42 mark, Galloway and Patton combined for the next five points to make it 54-48 just more than a minute later.
 
However, Rutgers got it back to a two-point game, 54-52 shortly after that and free throws stretched UTC' lead back to five.
 
The Scarlet Knights would not go away with back-to-back shots making it a nail-biter for the Mocs as the lead was back to one point, 57-56, with 7:50 to play.
 
Four of Chattanooga's next six points came at the charity stripe. Galloway drained a 3-pointer with 1:42 to play to stretch the lead to 66-62, but Rutgers kept battling back.
 
UTC pushed its lead to five points on a pair of free throws by sophomore Nicole Mattison, but a layup by Rutgers made it a one-bucket game with 45 seconds to play.
 
Patton's layup with 26 seconds gave the Mocs a little breathing room, but Pondexter drained a 3-pointer with 12 seconds to play to make it a 72-69 game.
 
Mattison, drawing a foul, made the second of her two free throw attempts and Pondexter's try from distance fell short on the other end.
 
Galloway was fouled with just two seconds on the clock and her two free throws let the Mocs breath again.
 
While the Mocs shot better in the second half, making 54.2 percent (13-24) of their attempts, the game was truly won at the free throw line where UTC was 27-of-38 while Rutgers made 5-of-7.
 
UTC edged the Knights on the boards 38-35 and had just five turnovers compared to 10 for Rutgers.
 
Galloway added 14 points for UTC making 2-of-5 from the 3-point line including the shot heard around McKenzie Arena that night. The one that brought the Mocs' faithful to their feet.
 
The 74-69 victory capped off UTC's 27-game run and put the Mocs into the history books as the first SoCon team to grab a win in the NCAA Tournament.
 
The loss to second seeded Vanderbilt two days later snapped the streak and doesn't sit well with the team.
 
"Still felt that there was unfinished business," Burrows stated. "But it was a pretty cool moment to settle in and realize what we had actually accomplished that year with so few bodies and so many people playing so out of position it wasn't even funny."
 
After celebrating with the fans on the court, the team celebrated in the locker room. Burrows had taken some time for herself before the rest arrived to reflect on what had happened and to mourn the grandfather she had lost the night before.
 
"I sat down in the bathroom and put my head between my legs and just cried for a few minutes because I could actually breath and kind of feel it for the first time, Burrows remembered."
 
The team came into the locker room to continue the celebration, jumping and shouting.
 
"I don't think we did water because we didn't want to clean it up!" she laughed. But the celebration continued. "Nothing felt as good as that feeling."
 
 
NOTES
- The win was No. 27 for the Mocs. It was the longest win streak in the nation that season and led the nation in overall wins.
 
- UTC reached #26 in the USA Today Coaches Poll and #33 in the Associated Press Top 25.
 
- The Mocs' RPI was #35
 
- UTC extended its home court win streak to 17 games
 
- Chattanooga received the No. 10 seed – it's highest to that point – and hosted the first and second rounds.
 
- Five UTC players scored in double figures. Tiffani Roberson 15 points, 9 rebounds; Katie Galloway 14 points, four assists; Katasha Brown 13 points, 40 minutes; Miranda Warfield 11 points off the bench; Nicole Mattison 10 points, 6 rebounds; Tiffany Patton 9 points, 10 rebounds.
 
- Rutgers had three in double figures led by Chelsea Newton's 16 points and 7 rebounds and 5 assists. Nikki Jett 15 points, 5 rebounds; Shalicia Hurns 14 points, 6 rebounds. Cappie Pondexter 9 points, 5 assists, 27 minutes.
 
- Chattanooga shot 40.7 percent (22-54) from the field; 3-14 (21.4%) from the 3-point line and 71.1 percent (27-38) from the free throw line. 38 rebounds, 11 assists, 5 turnovers, 1 blocked shot, no steals.
 
- Rutgers made 29-of-62 from the field (46.8%); 6-of-10 from 3-point line and 5-7 from free throw line. 35 rebounds, 13 assists, 10 turnovers, 5 blocked shots, 2 steals.
 
- UTC lost to 13^th-ranked and No. 2 seeded Vanderbilt 60-44 two days later. FUN FACT: Jim Foster recruited many of the upper classman on the Vanderbilt roster before leaving after the 2002 season to take the head coaching job at Ohio State.
 
- UTC's final record that season was 29-3. It still stands as the best winning percentage in school history and at the time was the most wins in program history. Since then UTC has posted three more 29-game win seasons but each one had four losses.