CHEROKEE, N.C. --- The Chattanooga women's basketball team suffered its second consecutive defeat on Thursday night, falling at the hands of Richmond 64-60 in UTC's final game at the 2023 Cherokee Invitational.
Shooting slumps by the Mocs (11-3, 0-0 SoCon) proved fatal in the long run as a late comeback push came up just short against a hard-nosed Spiders (10-3, 0-0 A10) squad.
UTC came out angry to open the game following their win streak being snapped the night before, as the Mocs kicked off the night with a 10-2 scoring run on the Spiders. In fact, Richmond's first field goal of the game wouldn't come until the 3:24 mark of the opening quarter when Laren Van Arsdale connected on a three-pointer for the Spiders. The three by Van Arsdale would spark a 12-0 scoring run to end the quarter for Richmond, as they led 14-10 over UTC as the first quarter came to a close.
The Mocs were able to bounce back early in the second frame, going on a 6-0 run to start the period to retake the lead at the 6:42 mark. However, UTC would once again fall into an all-too-familiar shooting slump that allowed Richmond to put up another nine answered points. While the Mocs were able to make up some ground, they still found themselves down 27-21 to the Spiders at the half.
Over the entirety of the third quarter, both teams traded buckets back and forth with UTC only able to get as close as four points from Richmond. Now left with just 10 minutes to play, the Mocs trailed 46-38 heading into quarter four.
It looked as though the Spiders would get just out of reach of a comeback attempt by the Mocs, with Richmond building up an 11-point 53-42 lead with 6:19 left to play. Despite this, Chattanooga threw all that they could at the Spiders to try to close the gap. Following some big-time three-pointers, the Mocs had gone on an 11-4 run to face a 57-53 deficit with 3:11 on the clock.
While the Mocs hung around the final few minutes of action, they could never get closer than that to the Spiders, unfortunately, as Richmond would close out the game with a 64-60 win over UTC to hand the Mocs their second consecutive loss in Cherokee.
The duo of Raven Thompson and Jada Guinn put together stellar performances offensively to keep the Mocs in the game, with Thompson dropping a career-high 27 points and Guinn logging her third double-double of the season (18 points, 11 rebounds). Guinn also finished with a team-high four assists on the night.
As a team, the Mocs put up an impressive rebounding performance against the much taller Richmond side, with UTC finishing the game with 35 boards compared to the Spiders' 29.
FROM HEAD COACH | QUOTES
Opening statement.
"How are we going to respond after the way we played and handled yesterday? I thought we responded great. We played very, very hard. It's just the little things, you know. We're playing a lot of minutes in terms of some freshmen. It's a learning curve. We're playing two freshmen out there, quite a bit of minutes and there's a lot of 'my bad's'. In games that we play, especially teams like that, you got to limit your 'my bads'. But I tell you what, we fought, fought, fought fought and fought. That's a really good Richmond team. We executed the game plan. We had a couple of brain farts but I love the way the responded."
"I'm really proud of a handful of them. Raven Thompson, I challenged her. She did not play well yesterday. I didn't like her approach today in shootaround and we're gonna hold you accountable. There was a challenge and she stepped up to the challenge. That's the stuff I needed to learn. Who are we? That seemed to win a lot of games and it's hard to want to smile. You don't ever want to lose, but I leave here knowing that we're going to be okay, we're going to get a chance to regroup. During this holiday season, we're going to recharge and we got a lot of practice time when we get back. We're excited about where we're headed. This is just a tough one to swallow tonight."
TOP TAKEAWAYS | NOTES
- Tonight's game marked the third-ever meeting between the Mocs and the Spiders. The all-time series moves to 2-1 in favor of the Spiders.
- This was the first meeting between the teams since 2009.
- Starters: Elisaldez, Porter, Guinn, Olafsdottir and Murphy. This starting five now is now 2-1 on the year.
- This was just the third time UTC trailed its opponent at the half.
- Jada Guinn has scored 10+ points in every game this season for the Mocs.
- Guinn and Thompson have now accounted for 436 of Chattanooga's 904 total points on the year (48.2 percent of team's scoring output).
- UTC shot 43.6 percent (24-for-55) from the floor on the night. The team has shot 40 percent or better from the field in 13 out of 14 games this season.
- The Mocs won the rebounding battle over the much taller Richmond team, 35-29.
UP NEXT: NC CENTRAL
Chattanooga women's basketball now enters its Christmas break period, with the team's next game not coming until January 3 when the Mocs play host to NC Central (5-7, 0-0 MEAC) at McKenzie Arena in what will be UTC's final non-conference matchup of the season. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. ET and the game will be available to watch via ESPN+ or listen to via 96.1 FM/100.3 FM/1070 AM or The Varsity Network app.
50 SEASONS OF CHATTANOOGA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
The 2023 season for the Chattanooga women's basketball team marks a major landmark for the program and the university, as UTC women's basketball officially celebrates its 50th season of competition as a university sponsored athletic program. Following the adoption of the Title IX legislation back in 1972, UTC added women's basketball, tennis and volleyball programs to its roster of athletic teams, bringing on five decades of history and success for each of the teams. Chattanooga WBB will be putting on multiple promotions and content pieces throughout the 2023-24 season to celebrate the program's history, culminating in the team hosting its 50th Season Celebration and Reunion during the Mocs' February 3 matchup against Furman at McKenzie Arena.
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