CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- The Chattanooga women will take on Furman Saturday afternoon at Timmons Arena. This will be Mocs head coach Shawn Poppie's first trip to take on the Paladins as head coach. Poppie was an assistant for current Paladin head coach Jackie Carson for three seasons, 2012-16 before taking the same position at Virginia Tech.
 
GAME DAY INFORMATION
Mocs at Furman
Site: Greenville, S.C. | Timmons Arena
Time: 2:00 p.m.
The game will be carried live on ESPN+ and WFLI radio. Links for streaming audio and video and live stats are available online at GoMocs.com
 
CHATTANOOGA vs. FURMAN
This will be the 88th meeting between the Mocs and Paladins since first meeting in 1985. UTC leads the series 56-31. In the SoCon regular season, the Mocs are 49-27 and lead 23-16 on the road. Furman has won the last five meetings.
 
THE LAST TIME THEY MET
UTC fell 70-63 in overtime to Furman in the opening round of the Southern Conference Tournament. The Mocs shot 8-of-14 in the opening frame and 4-of-7 from deep to take a 20-9 lead on the Paladins after the first 10 minutes. Furman struggled from the field, making just 3-of-13 (23.1%) in the period. The second saw the Paladins close the gap, cutting the Mocs lead to 30-24 at the half. Furman edged the Chattanooga in the third and outscored UTC 18-13 in the final quarter of regulation to tie it up and head to overtime. It would take more than two minutes before Furman broke the seal in OT with a 3-pointer from Walters. Chattanooga's Olafsdottir scored a quick bucket off a Furman turnover to make it a 63-62 affair but it would be free throws for Furman down the stretch to give the Paladins the win. Furman went 5-for-6 in overtime from the line and 16-of-18 for the game. Cornelius, who scored 15 points in the third, led the Mocs with a career-high 26 points. She just missed a double-double with nine rebounds. Brooke Hampel was the Mocs only other player in double digits with 10 points off the bench to go along with four rebounds.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Chattanooga fell 64-51 at Wofford Thursday night. After trailing 21-6 heading into the second quarter, the Mocs stepped up their game and shot 45.5 percent in the frame, outscoring Wofford 19-12 and pulling to within eight points, 33-25, at the half. Raven Thompson got the scoring started in the second with a layup early that was answered by the Terriers. However, UTC put together a 14-2 sprint anchored by Thompson with nine more points in the quarter to get Chattanooga to within five points, 27-22, with 3:04 to play in the opening half. Thompson led Chattanooga with 16 points. Yazz Wazeerud-Din added 13 points. Also in double digits was Addie Grace Porter with 10 points. Chattanooga shot 32.7 percent (18-55) on the night and was 5-of-23 from deep while shooting 90.9 percent from the free throw line, making 10-of-11.
 
MOCS NEWS AND NOTES
FRESHMAN RAVEN THOMPSON BY THE NUMBERS
Rookie Raven Thompson has started every game for the Mocs this season. She leads the Mocs in rebounding and is second for scoring. At the charity stripe, she leads UTC making 80 percent of her attempts (88-110). In the SoCon she is seventh in scoring, third in rebounds and fifth in field goal percentage.
In the NCAA she is ranked among the best in seven categories among freshmen (NCAA overall):
• Third for free throws made (20)
• Fourth for free throw attempts (26)
• Sixth for rebounds (96)
• Eighth for rebounds per game (142)
• Ninth for points (142)
• 11th for free throw percentage (154)
• 12th for points per game (217)
 
MOCS WITH THREE 1,000 POINT SCORERS
Abbey Cornelius scored her 1,000th point this season, playing all five years with Chattanooga. Not far behind was transfer Yazz Wazeerud-Din who topped 1,000 points in her three seasons of Division I basketball. She played two years with South Georgia Technical College (JC), two years at Stetson (DI) and one at UTC (DI). She has over 1600 points from all three schools. Amaria Pugh, also at her third school, topped 1,000 career points last season.
 
THIRD ONE'S THE CHARM
Graduate Abbey Cornelius became just the third person in Chattanooga women's basketball history to score 1,000 points, record 800 rebounds and 100 blocked shots. The other two are Alex Anderson, 2004-08 (1,732/1,010/221) and current graduate assistant Jasmine Joyner, 2013-17 (1,319/982/436).
 
LONG-RANGE BOMBERS
The Mocs have made at least one 3-pointer in 728 consecutive games dating back to December 1999. That's more nearly 23 years! Chattanooga reached the 700-consecutive game mark at Wofford on January 27, 2022 in Spartanburg, S.C. According to current unofficial research, this is the second-longest streak in the nation behind Iowa State who reached 875 games this year dating back to Feb. 19, 1995.
 
McDONALD'S ALL-AMERICAN NOMINEES
Caia Elisaldez and Eleecia Carter were nominated to the 2023 McDonald's All American Game. The final lineups will be revealed later this month. The announcement will be made live on NBA Today on Tuesday, January 24, 2023 between 3:00-4:00 p.m. Eastern time on ESPN. The games will be played in Houston. Texas led the way with the most nominees (93) followed by California (73) and Florida (65). Elisaldez is from Whittier, Calif., and Carter lives in Winter Garden, Fla.