Lady Mocs junior Faith Dupree scored a game-high 14 points to lead the Lady Mocs to a 61-42 win over Lee University Thursday night at the McKenzie Arena in the preseason tune-up.
After leading by a slim 26-24 margin at the half, Chattanooga went on a 14-2 run in the latter stanza getting six points from Dupree to stretch Chattanooga’s lead out to 40-26 with 14:05 left to play. Lee dropped in four free throws on either side of a 3-pointer by UTC senior Kylie Lambert to make it 43-30, but a 10-0 run by the Lady Mocs with the youngest lineup on the court put Chattanooga up 53-30, its largest lead of the game, with 9:01 to play.
Lee’s outside game kicked in with a trio of 3-pointers and a pair of free throws to outscore Chattanooga 11-2 over the next 2:45 to cut the lead to 55-41, but the Lady Mocs got back-to-back 3-pointers from senior Kayla Christopher and Chattanooga’s advantage climbed back up to 20 points with 3:09 to play.
The Lady Mocs scored 25 points off 27 Lee turnovers and had 18 steals on the night with 16 assists. After shooting just 29 percent in the first half, Chattanooga went 13-of-28 (46.4%) in the second half and was 6-fo-8 from beyond the arc. Christopher recorded four rebounds and dished out a game-high four assists. She, along with sophomore Ka’Vonne Towns and junior Meghan Downes each contributed a pair of 3-pointers each scoring eight points in the win.
Dupree was 7-of-12 from the field, grabbed four rebounds, two assists and a steal. Lambert added seven points for Chattanooga, pulled down four rebounds and had three steals. Junior Taylor Hall contributed five points, five rebounds, five steals and four assists while junior Ashlen Dewart scored six points and a team-high six rebounds.
Chattanooga outrebounded Lee 39-33 and scored 15 second chance points off 13 offensive boards and had 20 points in the paint compared to the Lady Flames’ eight while UTC’s bench contributed 26 points.
Lee was paced by Jenna Adams’ eight points and game-high 13 rebounds. Karley Miller had a team-high nine points in the effort and All-American Hollie German added eight points, three assists and two steals playing 37 minutes.
Chattanooga will open the season Friday, November 9 against the Tennessee Lady Vols who will be without legendary head coach Pat Summitt on the bench. The Hall of Famer stepped down last season after 38 years and eight National Championships.
