CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Chattanooga women's basketball knew it only had one path to the No. 2 seed of the SoCon Tournament: beat Wofford.

That made Saturday's Senior Day that much sweeter for the Mocs (14-13, 9-5 SoCon) when UTC rolled its way through the Terriers enroute to a 69-61 victory, clinching a second-place finish for the Mocs in the final league standings.

"It's not who you are in times of calmness, but how you are in times of struggle and strife," head coach Deandra Schirmer said. "So for us to be able to have a challenging season and stay the course and buy in to what we're doing. To listen to a crazy coach when she's telling us different things. I just feel so humbled to be able to coach this group every single day with how much they have shown with perseverance; how much they've shown with just character." 

By clinching the No. 2 seed, Coach Schirmer becomes just the third head coach in program history to have led the Mocs to a top-two seed in the SoCon Tournament in their first season at the helm of Chattanooga women's basketball. She joins Shawn Poppie and Jim Foster on the elite list.

The opening ten minutes of the game proved to truly resemble a slugfest between two of the league's top teams, as both sides swapped blows and leads before a late Sigrun Olafsdottir basket gave Chattanooga a 14-13 lead at the conclusion of the first quarter.

The Mocs were then able to rely on true freshman Gianna Corbitt to get it going on offense for the squad. With Corbitt scoring eight of her eventual 11 points in the second quarter, including making two three-pointers for the Mocs, UTC found itself carrying a 28-24 advantage into halftime.

Knowing they couldn't let the Terriers continue to hang around, the Mocs came out in the third with the intention of slamming the door on Wofford's hopes of ruining UTC's Senior Day. Lighting the nets ablaze over the next 10 minutes of action, Chattanooga saw multiple players make their way into the scoring column as UTC built up a double-digit at the 1:23 mark of the third, holding a 51-38 lead on the Terriers.

UTC continued to bowl through the Terriers in the final frame of the day, as the exclamation mark of the game came with just 2:33 left in the game when senior Karsen Murphy, in her final game in the Roundhouse, brought the stadium to its feet after hitting a three-pointer that gave the Mocs their largest lead of the day with the scoreboard reading 68-52.

The Mocs then took their foot off the gas, and while the Terriers were able to cut their deficit back down to single digits it was far too little and far too late as the Mocs came out with a 69-61, earning the SoCon's No. 2 seed and a Senior Day W to close out the 2024-25 regular season.

Caia Elisaldez would nearly finish with a double-double for the Mocs, leading the team with 19 points while logging a career-high nine assists as well. It would've marked the first time since 2006 that a Moc recorded a double-double with assists in a game.

Karsen Murphy and Gianna Corbitt each finished with double-digit points as well, scoring 12 and 11, respectively. Murphy also finished with a team-high in blocks (3) while Corbitt led the team in rebounds (6).

FROM THE HEAD COACH | QUOTES
On joining the program and having the seniors buy-in for her first year.
"Knowing that our seniors were really the heart and soul of our team, it was really important to develop those relationships early. We had senior meetings where we talked about, hey is this working is this not what's our feedback, just trying to get the pulse of the team. I think that from the beginning it was a priority of mine to know this team and to let this team know that we are going to give them everything we've got and we're coming for a championship... I made a promise to them. I said we're gonna fight with everything we have to get back to that championship level and I wanted them to know that I'm giving it and our staff is giving it everything we've got because they deserve that. They've been through everything."

TOP TAKEAWAYS | NOTES
- This marked the 65th meeting between Chattanooga and Wofford.
- UTC now leads the all-time series 56-9.
- The Mocs are now 27-2 when hosting the Terriers.
- Coach Schirmer went with the following starting five: Elisaldez, Olafsdottir, Murphy, Corbitt, Anya.
- The Mocs are now 11-8 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 803 straight games.
- Chattanooga honored the following four seniors for Senior Day: Brooke Anya, Takia Davis, Karsen Murphy and Sigrun Olafsdottir
- With the win over Wofford, the Mocs secured the No. 2 seed for the upcoming SoCon Tournament
- The Mocs will take on No. 7 Mercer in the opening round matchup, slated for 1:15 p.m. ET on Thursday
- Deandra Schirmer is now just the third head coach in program history to lead the Mocs to a top-two seed in the SoCon Tournament in their first season with the program.
- She joins Shawn Poppie (2022-23) and Jim Foster (2013-14).
- Chattanooga ended the game with just eight turnovers as a team. This marks a season-low for UTC.
- UTC held Wofford to a 29.9 (20-for-67) shooting percentage.
- It marks the second-lowest field goal percentage allowed by the Mocs to a SoCon opponent this season.
- Wofford out-rebounded Chattanooga 46-29 (-17).
- This marks the second-worst rebounding margin of the season for the Mocs against a SoCon opponent.
- UTC ended the game with 13 assists compared to Wofford's six assists.
- Chattanooga out-scored Wofford in the following stat categories: fastbreak points (16-5), points off turnovers (10-9) and points in the paint (32-16).
- Meanwhile when it came to second chance points, the Terriers out-scored the Mocs 24-3.
- This was thanks in large part to the Terriers having 21 offensive rebounds while the Mocs finished with four.
- The Mocs led for a total of 33:07 of game time.

UP NEXT: MERCER (SOCON TOURNAMENT)
Having secured the No. 2 seed, the Mocs will now take on No. 7 seeded Mercer on Thursday, March 6 in the opening round of the 2025 Southern Conference Tournament in Asheville, North Carolina. Thursday's game is slated for a 1:15 p.m. ET tip time, but that is subject to change based on the length of the 11 a.m. ET game set to be played before the Mocs are in action. Regardless, Thursday's game against the Bears will be available to stream on ESPN+ and can also be listened to over the radio on WFLI 96.1 FM/100.3 FM/1070 AM or The Varsity app.

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