SPARTANBURG, S.C. --- After falling behind by six at the end of the third period, the Chattanooga women's basketball team used an 11-0 run to regain the lead and go on to beat Wofford 60-52 in Southern Conference action Thursday night at Richardson Indoor Stadium.
The Mocs improved to 10-7 overall and 5-3 in league action while the Terriers drop into a tie with UTC at 5-3 against the SoCon and 9-6 on the year.
Chattanooga quickly got out to an 11-point lead before Wofford called for time. Out of the time out, the Mocs didn't let up and pushed its lead to 23-7, it's largest of the game, with 1:52 to play. However, the Terriers closed out the period on an 8-0 run to make it 25-15 after the first 10 minutes.
In the second, Wofford held UTC to nine points and chipped away at the lead, cutting it to 34-28 at halftime. The Terriers took over the lead in the third outscoring UTC 17-5 and shooting 4-of-5 from the 3-point line.
"One thing we did such a good job with in the second half is boxing out," Chattanooga head coach
Katie Burrows said. "We gave up eight offensive rebounds in the first half. We had 2-3 that were banging hard, but it was the other two who weren't helping. We made that very clear in the locker room that you can't do that and we did a good job of adjusting that in the second half."
Wofford edged the Mocs on the boards 18-15 including an 8-1 advantage on the offensive glass. UTC flipped that in the second half, 18-14 and won the and allowed just two offensive rebounds by the Terriers in the second half.
Chattanooga was 7-of-11 (63.6%) in the final quarter and held Wofford to just seven points to close out the victory.
Sigrun Olafsdottir started the scoring in the frame with a shot in the paint and
Abbey Cornelius connected on her free throws to pull the Mocs to within two, 45-43, at the 7:36 mark of the period.
Bria Dial hit a long jumper to tie the game at 45-45 a minute later and
Eboni Williams cut into the lane for the steal and made a fast break layup on the other end to give UTC the lead for good with 6:17 to play.
Wofford closed the gap on a 3-pointer from Lily Hatton to make it 54-52 with a minute to play, but that would be the Terriers final points as UTC stretched the lead with six straight points to close out the game.
FREE THROWS WERE KEY
UTC was perfect from the free throw line through three quarters and made its first 14 and made four of its final six to 16-of-18 (.889).
Wofford was 6-of-8 from the free throw line.
TOP PERFORMERS
Chattanooga
Bria Dial led the Mocs with 17 points and was 6-of-6 from the charity stripe. She had a game-high four steals.
Eboni Williams had 16 points, seven rebounds, three assists and a pair of blocked shots.
Abbey Cornelius just missed a double-double with 15 points and nine rebounds. With two blocked shots tonight, she now has 32 on the year and 84 for her career, four shy of fifth on the Mocs' all-time chart.
Anna Walker led UTC off the bench with seven points.
Wofford
Jackie Carman had a game-high 24 points. She was 5-of-13 from the 3-point line and was the only Terrier in double figures.
KEY TO THE GAME
Defense. The Mocs shut the Terriers down in the final quarter.
Sigrun Olafsdottir was tasked with guarding Jackie Carman. She held her to a 1-of-4 performance, giving up just two points to the game's leading scorer.
SPECIALTY STATS
Chattanooga scored 19 points off 16 Wofford turnovers and gave up 14 points on 16 miscues of its own.
UTC won the battle in the paint 24-18.
Wofford scored nine points on 10 offensive rebounds. UTC had four offensive rebounds and converted that into six points.
UTC was 12-7 on fast breaks including Williams' steal and fast break that gave UTC the lead for good in the fourth quarter, 47-45.
The Mocs edged the Terriers 10-9 on bench points.
There was just one tie in the game and the lead changed four times.
UP NEXT:
The two teams will tip it up again Saturday at 2:00 p.m. at Richardson Indoor Stadium. Follow all the action online at GoMocs.com.
The win moved the Mocs into a tie with Wofford for third place behind Samford (7-1) and Mercer (7-2).
