Chattanooga, Tenn. — Chattanooga women's basketball dropped a tightly-contested 74-40 decision to Furman in overtime on Thursday night in game one of the final two-game home stand of UTC's regular season.
The Mocs (13-13, 8-5 SoCon) came into Thursday's game with their sights set on securing an important win in the push for higher SoCon Tournament seeding, but ultimately fell to the Paladins (15-14, 5-8 SoCon) in Chattanooga's first overtime game in over two seasons. A total of four UTC players recorded double-digit points on the evening, but it was Furman's 50 percent field goal percentage as a team that proved to be the dagger in the back-and-forth contest in McKenzie Arena.
"I feel like this whole season we've had a lot of games that have taught us lessons and I was hopeful that we had learned all the lessons that we needed to make a push towards the end of the season, but apparently we need to learn some more lessons," head coach Deandra Schirmer said. "I think that credit all goes to Furman and their players and their coaching staff.
"We were too focused on what is ahead instead of focusing on Furman and I think that we are a little bit shocked at how well they shot the ball, even though they are one of the best offensive teams in our conference. This is not the time to get complacent and I hope we learned a lesson tonight, I hope in us getting our butts kicked on our home court in front of a great fan base, I hope it wakes us up and I hope that's the cold water that wakes us up and says hey we gotta get it together."
Despite the loss to Furman on Thursday night, the Mocs remain alive to clinch the No. 2 seed in the SoCon Tournament in this coming Saturday's game against Wofford. The loser of Saturday's game will be relegated to either the No. 3 or No. 4 seed depending on the Samford result against Western Carolina that same day.
After a tight 8-7 start to the first quarter which featured scores from Caia Elisaldez and Sigrun Olafsdottir, Chattanooga began to fall behind as Furman went on a 6-0 and 7-0 run to put the Paladins up by 11 points for their largest lead of the night. Karsen Murphy sunk a silky three-point shot to stop the bleeding and prevent a 13-0 Paladin run, ensuring the Mocs knew they were down, but not out.
Down 21-10 and starting the second quarter, the Mocs picked up their lunch pail and went to work. Jade Moore and Sigrun Olafsdottir sunk three-pointers, Gianna Corbitt pulled up with floating baskets, Brooke Anya and Ava Card came through with clutch layups, and Takia Davis made a pair of free throws to drive Mocs back to a three-point deficit at halftime, one that was nearly erased by a halftime hail mary shot from Murphy.
The momentum kept swinging to start the second half as the Mocs began the third quarter with a 7-0 run via Elisaldez and Anya to pull Chattanooga out to a 35-31 lead. Murphy put up a floater to reach her fifth point of the evening and keep the Mocs ahead as the play began to thicken. The scrappy third quarter featured two ties and four lead changes as the game became another SoCon classic.
The fourth quarter saw the trailing Mocs take another five point lead, this time to put Chattanooga up 52-47. After a bit of back-and-forth from both sides, the last two minutes were etched in thrilling fashion as three ties came at 1:27, 1:12, and 0:19 of the final frame. Chattanooga had the ball to end the game, but UTC's potential game-winner wouldn't fall, leading to five more minutes of free basketball at the Roundhouse.
Falling down by as much as five to enter the overtime period, Chattanooga scored six points of their own to take a breath-holding two point lead with just 1:04 left after Anya converted both of her free throws to send the McKenzie Arena into a frenzy. Unfortunately for the Mocs, their magic ran out as Furman's Jada Session converted one free throw and Tate Walters sank three free throws of her own, as well as a two-point jumper to pull the rug out from under Chattanooga and come away with the extra-effort win.
Caia Elisaldez led the Mocs with 18 points, marking her ninth-straight game leading UTC in scoring, while also pocketing a team-high eight assists. Anya (15 points), Corbitt (13 points) and Murphy (10) also ended their nights with double-digit scoring figures, while Corbitt finished with a team-leading seven rebounds.
FROM THE HEAD COACH | QUOTES
On the team getting into foul trouble late in the game.
"We've got to grow up. Fouling out of a game is an immature thing and you've got to be mature enough to play smart. To keep doing it and we keep looking at the officials like its their fault... we've just got to be smarter and I think it's some frustration fouls, it's some I'm tired fouls, but we've got to do a better job of being disciplined defensively so we are not getting in foul trouble."
TOP TAKEAWAYS | NOTES
- Thursday marked the 94th all-time meeting between Chattanooga and Furman.
- The Mocs now lead the series 62-32.
- UTC holds a record of 28-12 when hosting the Paladins.
- Chattanooga's loss snapped a six-game win streak that UTC had over the Paladins.
- It also marks UTC's first home loss to Furman since Feb. 24, 2022.
- Thursday's game went to overtime, marking the 54th overtime game in Chattanooga women's basketball history.
- The Mocs are now 27-27 all-time in overtime games, including being 21-25 in single overtime games.
- This marked UTC's first overtime game since Jan. 21, 2023 (UTC defeated Furman 51-44).
- This is the first time UTC has lost an overtime game since March 3, 2022 (also against Furman. Paladins won 70-63).
- This is the third time in the 94-game series history of Chattanooga-Furman that the game has gone to OT.
- All of those overtime games have come between now and the year 2022.
- The Paladins are now 2-1 against the Mocs in overtime games.
- Coach Schirmer went with the following starting five: Elisaldez, Olafsdottir, Murphy, Corbitt, Anya.
- The Mocs are now 10-8 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 802 straight games.
- Furman shot the ball 50 percent (28-for-56) from the floor. It's the highest field goal percentage by a UTC opponent this season.
- UTC out-rebounded the Paladins 31-29.
- Furman saw 21 of their points come off the bench with UTC only having seven.
- The Paladins had 21 points off turnovers while the Mocs had 14.
- FU also out-scored the Mocs in the paint 38-26 and in second chance points 7-0.
- This is just the second time this season that the Mocs failed to score any second chance points in a game.
- The other time came in UTC's Jan. 11 road loss at UNCG.
- The game featured 13 ties and 14 lead changes overall.
UP NEXT: WOFFORD
Chattanooga women's basketball wraps up its regular season this Saturday for UTC's Senior Day celebration. The Mocs will take on the Terriers at 2 p.m. ET right here at McKenzie Arena with the winner taking home the No. 2 seed for next week's SoCon Tournament. The game will be available to stream on ESPN+ or over the radio on WFLI 104.3 FM or The Varsity app.
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