BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --- Chattanooga women's basketball dropped a tightly contested road battle on Saturday, with the Mocs falling 55-50 to Samford at the Pete Hanna Center in Birmingham.
The Mocs (12-12, 7-4 SoCon) struggled to find the bottom of the net in the game, getting out-shot 43 percent to 32 percent by the Bulldogs (10-16, 5-5 SoCon) over the course of the game. That, paired with Samford's ability to score 22 of their 55 points (40 percent) off UTC turnovers proved the tipping point in a hard-fought SoCon clash.
"One of our goals is to hold them to 55 or under, and I thought surely if we hold them to 55 or under we'll win the game," head coach Deandra Schirmer said. "I think that it's a little bit disheartening because we've been practicing our tails off, left, right and center. Credit to our players, they're playing hard and they're getting excellent looks. It's just, the ball's not going in and that's probably on me.
"I've got to get better rotations, I've got to have some fresh legs there in the fourth. I think that we have a really good core, but we're still trying to find somebody that we can throw in there in big positions and get us some good minutes. I felt like their offense is so exposed so it's hard. You wanna go with the defensive group, but then it costs us that game. I've got to get back to the drawing board a little bit and look at some of the things and how teams are defending us and how we can get better in those capacities."
The Mocs were able to strike first on the back of Caia Elisaldez, as the sophomore connected on a three-pointer followed by a smooth iso layup to give UTC an early 5-0 advantage in Birmingham. The Bulldogs clapped right back, however, ripping off a 14-0 scoring run over a six-minute period of time. While the Mocs were able to get one last basket prior to the end of the quarter, the Mocs were facing a 14-7 deficit after one.
Chattanooga's offense then found its footing in the second quarter, slowly chipping away at Samford's lead before a bucket by Elisaldez knotted the game up at 20-20 at the 3:31 mark of the quarter. Not long after, Sigrun Olafsdottir connected on back-to-back three-pointers for the Mocs, helping to give UTC its first lead since the 6:11 mark of the first as the Mocs held a 28-25 advantage heading into the halftime break.
A quick flurry of baskets to open the third saw the game get knotted up 30-30 with 8:34 left in the frame. UTC then stalled out over the next couple of minutes, with the Bulldogs ripping off a 9-0 scoring run to jump ahead on the Mocs, 39-30.
Not fazed by Samford's attack, the Mocs responded right back to close out the third, ending the final 4:15 of the quarter on a 10-1 run of their own. With the score tied 40-40, this one was getting decided in the fourth quarter.
While the Mocs hung around through the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, a string of baskets by the Bulldogs saw Samford leading 50-45 with 4:07 left to play. Despite facing the deficit, the Mocs once again battled to the very end, getting as close as a 50-48 deficit with 2:19 left to play.
Unfortunately for the Mocs, time ran out on the team's comeback hopes as the Bulldogs ended up coming away with a 55-50 result in the Pete Hanna Center.
For the seventh-straight game, Caia Elisaldez finished as Chattanooga's leading scorer as the sophomore delivered 15 points for the Mocs on a 7-for-15 shooting clip. Sigrun Olafsdottir added 11 points of her own, nine of which came from three-point range in the loss.
Gianna Corbitt finished just one rebound shy of her sixth career double-double, as the Oakland Park, Florida, native logged 14 points and nine rebounds for UTC. Karsen Murphy would tie Corbitt for the team-high in rebounding, having brought down nine boards of her own.
On the defensive side of the ball, Olafsdottir, Murphy and Brooke Anya rounded out Chattanooga's stat leaders. Olafsdottir and Anya would finish tied for the team-high in steals (2), while Murphy logged a season-high three blocks in the losing effort in Birmingham.
Despite the loss, the Mocs maintain their position in third place in the Southern Conference standings. Now 7-4 in league play, Chattanooga has now officially been eliminated from earning the No. 1 seed in the SoCon Tournament but is still very much in play for the tournament's No. 2 seed.
The Mocs currently sit half a game back from second-place Wofford, a team that still has to play UTC in McKenzie Arena in Chattanooga's final game of the regular season. UTC is also a game up on fourth-place ETSU, who is next up on the Mocs' schedule next Saturday in Johnson City.
FROM THE HEAD COACH | QUOTES
On the response of the team in the loss
"I also feel like I'm gutted for our group because I feel like there's a number of times where we could have rolled over. We were down seven multiple times and we battled back and we battled back and hit some big shots. I don't know how many threes that we were able to get off when we were down by three, but they didn't fall. Those are sometimes where you feel like a decision, one way or the other, could have impacted the game a little bit better. You knew it was gonna be a close game, so I held on to my timeouts a little bit. I'm sitting here like, maybe I should have burned them a little bit earlier when we were going cold a bit, but we're learning. I think that this is an up call for our group going into some big games. Obviously we have another big one up against ETSU, and we have to make sure that we're locked in for that."
TOP TAKEAWAYS | NOTES
- This was the 43rd meeting between Chattanooga and Samford.
- The all-time series now stands at 31-12 in favor of the Mocs.
- UTC's record moves to 12-7 when playing the Bulldogs in Birmingham.
- The Mocs had won their last four meetings with Samford dating back to a Jan. 12, 2023 loss (SAM won 58-53).
- UTC had also won each of its last three trips to Birmingham against the Bulldogs.
- Chattanooga's last road loss to Samford came back on Jan. 23, 2020 (SAM won 60-46).
- Coach Schirmer went with the following starting five: Elisaldez, Olafsdottir, Murphy, Corbitt, Anya.
- The Mocs are now 9-7 this season when playing that starting lineup.
- Chattanooga currently holds the longest active streak in the entire NCAA when it comes to consecutive games with a made three-pointer.
- Dating back to December 1999, UTC has made a three-pointer in 800 straight games.
- Chattanooga was out-shot 43 percent (21-for-49) compared to UTC's 32 percent (17-for-53).
- The Mocs finished with more turnovers, logging 16 compared to Samford's 15.
- From this, the Bulldogs were able to score 22 points off turnovers compared to Chattanooga's 11.
- The Mocs out-rebounded the Bulldogs 38-27.
- This included the Mocs having 13 offensive rebounds while the Bulldogs only had five.
- Because of their work on the offensive glass, UTC had 15 second chance points in the game. Samford only had two.
- UTC finished with zero points off the bench.
- This is the second time this season the Mocs had no points off the bench, the other coming against Mercer back on Jan. 18.
- Samford out-scored Chattanooga in the paint, 22-20.
UP NEXT: EAST TENNESSEE STATE
The Mocs will now have a full week before their next game, as UTC's next trip will involve the Mocs traveling to Johnson City, Tennessee, next Saturday, February 22 for an in-state rivalry clash with ETSU. Saturday's game against the Buccaneers is set to tipoff at 2 p.m. ET and will be available to stream on ESPN+ or listen to on WFLI 104.3 FM or The Varsity app.
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