CHATTANOOGA --- In front of a season-high crowd of over 2,400 in McKenzie Arena as well as countless UTC women's basketball alumni in attendance to celebrate 50 years of program history, the Chattanooga women's basketball team delivered a hard-fought 79-62 victory over Furman on Saturday to remain unbeaten in Southern Conference action this season.
The Mocs (19-3, 7-0 SoCon) scorched the nets across all 40 minutes of play Saturday afternoon, shooting nearly 60 percent from the floor and over 40 percent from three-point range to easily manage the Paladins' (12-11, 2-5 SoCon) zone defense.
With the win, Chattanooga moves to a 7-0 start to the Southern Conference season, marking the first time the team has done so since the 2014-15 season. That year, the Mocs went on to go a perfect 14-0 in SoCon play before eventually winning the 2015 Southern Conference Tournament title as well.
UTC would succumb to another slow start to their day over the opening six minutes of action, with Furman jumping out to a brief 8-7 lead on the Mocs at the 4:03 mark of the first. That lead, which would be the only time Furman would lead for the entire day, quickly evaporated thanks to freshman Hannah Kohn hitting on a three-pointer for the Mocs. It would be the first of Kohn's four total three-pointers on the day.
Sparked by Kohn, as well as a fired-up Takia Davis who came off the bench for UTC to drop all six of her points in the opening frame, Chattanooga would close out the first quarter on a 15-5 scoring run to see the Mocs up 22-13 after the opening 10 minutes.
From this point forward, the Mocs kept the Paladins outside of striking distance by maintaining a double-digit lead for the remaining 30 minutes of action. While Jada Guinn may not have been able to find her usual explosive offense for the Mocs, plenty of her teammates stepped up in the clutch including Raven Thompson, who would finish the game with a team-high 17 points.
Kohn, who ended her day 4-for-6 from three-point range, nearly set a new career-high mark in the victory with the Oviedo, Florida, native dropping 16 points. Fellow freshman Caia Elisaldez, who has done nothing but dazzle fans over the past four games for the Mocs, also came out on a mission for UTC offensively with Elisaldez ending her day with nine points and eight assists.
Not only did her eight assists mark a career-high for the freshman, but it stands as the most assists in a single game by a Moc since Dena Jarrells recorded eight on January 22, 2022 against UNCG. Had Elisaldez scored one more point and logged two more assists, it would have been the first double-double for a Moc that included assists since 2006.
Through the efforts of the above-mentioned players, as well as the rest of the UTC bench, the Mocs were able to pull away from the Paladins to secure a 79-62 win over Furman, keeping the team's now eight-game win streak alive. 37 of those points for the Mocs came off the bench, marking a season-high for the team.
FROM THE HEAD COACH | QUOTES
Opening Statement
"Obviously proud of the kids effort today. I'm gonna start by thanking the fans. I think, unofficially, roughly 3,000, 4,000 fans. Whatever it was, it felt like there were a lot of people in there and I know that I kind of mentioned that the last time. So thank you fans. Thanks to all the alumni, friends and family. It made it a really special day for them to come back home and hopefully we made them proud with the energy and effort we played with."
"We still had our lows, but overall it's hard to get made about shooting 60%, 47% from the three and we took advantage, 14-of-17 from the free throw line. So I thin what we're realizing now is that we got a lot of people that have potential to help us. So when Jada Guinn has her first non-10-point game of the season for us, we have other people step up. So proud of our effort. Halfway home and we got a lot of work. We now have five of our last seven on the road."
On production out of freshman
"They've always had the talent. It was the speed of the game, the understanding of what we're trying to accomplish. Coming in today, Furman had zoned a lot recently so I expected Hannah to get some minutes out there because, obviously, she can really shoot it. Caia, this is really four in a row that she'd one well for us. She gives us a different dynamic at the point guard spot. Those two have really impressed me, just staying the course. I think we're seeing the results from it in a positive way because that's just who they are and how they've attacked the process.
"My thing with Hannah [Kohn] is I think she may have had six open at times. She has to realize when. She has to be ready to shoot in rhythm, but she had six really good ones and I thought Caia [Elisaldez] added some of that. She's so fast downhill, especially in transition and it's hard to have."
TOP TAKEAWAYS | NOTES
- Today marked the 91st meeting all-time between UTC and Furman.
- UTC now leads the all-time series 60-31.
- The Mocs have now won their last four meetings with Furman.
- Chattanooga's win streak has now reached eight straight victories.
- The Mocs have now extended their home win streak up to 10 consecutive home wins.
- The last home loss for UTC came on November 12, 2023 against Marshall.
- This marks the longest home win streak for the team since they won a total of 17 consecutive home games in a row across the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons.
- The Mocs are now 11-1 at home this season. The last time UTC won double-digit home games in a single season: 2015-16 (team finished 14-1).
- The team remains undefeated in the 2024 calendar year.
- The Mocs remain undefeated in SoCon play at 7-0 at the halfway point of the SoCon season.
- The last time Chattanooga started 7-0 in conference action: 2014-15 season (the Mocs went on to finish a perfect 14-0 in SoCon play that year).
- Starters: Porter, Guinn, Olafsdottir, Thompson and Murphy. This starting five now is now 17-2 on the year.
- UTC has now led 19 out of 22 games this season at the half.
- Jada Guinn's first time this season where she hasn't scored double-digits. Finished with eight points.
- Guinn and Thompson have now accounted for 708 of Chattanooga's 1,436 total points on the year (49.3 percent of team's scoring output).
- UTC shot 59.2 percent (29-for-49) from the floor on the day.
- The Mocs have shot above 40 percent as a team 20 times this season. They've shot above 50 percent seven times this season.
- Chattanooga also shot 46.7 percent (7-for-15) from three-point range on the day.
- It's the team's 13th time this season shooting above 40 percent from behind the arc.
- UTC finished with 16 assists, marking the second-highest assist total for the Mocs on the year.
- The Paladins only led for a total time of 0:21.
- 37 of Chattanooga's 79 points came off the bench. That matches the team's season-high 37 bench points from against King University in the season-opener.
UP NEXT: SAMFORD
With a majority of the Mocs' front half of the SoCon slate coming at home in McKenzie Arena, UTC will need to be prepared for a back-loaded road schedule to close out the 2023-24 season with five of the team's seven remaining regular season contests being road matchups. The first of these games will take place on Thursday, February 8 when the Mocs travel to Birmingham, Alabama, to take on the Samford Bulldogs (11-11, 3-4 SoCon). Tipoff against the Bulldogs is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT and the game can be found on ESPN+ or on 96.1 FM/100.3 FM/1070 AM.
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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