UTC Women Fall to Mercer 59-53 Without Leading Scorer Abbey Cornelius

(gomocs.com) CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — The Chattanooga Mocs took the battle to the second half but couldn’t win the war Thursday night at The McKenzie Arena, falling 59-53 to Mercer in Southern Conference women’s basketball action.

UTC played without leading scorer and rebounder Abbe

y Cornelius. She was on the bench with a boot on her left foot with a lower extremity injury.

“When we had it to three, I thought we had a chance,” Mocs head coach Katie Burrows said. “We just couldn’t knock down the shots when we needed them. We got good looks, they just weren’t going in.”

In the final frame, Sigrun Olafsdottir drove into the lane for a quick layup, sparking a 9-3 run by the Mocs that was capped off by a bucket from Dena Jarrells, cutting the lead to 54-51 with 4:07 to play.

Chattanooga forced four turnovers with three steals in the final minutes and had five rebounds, four on the offensive glass, but managed just one bucket the rest of the way. UTC shot 16-of-62 in the game and was 7-of-28 from the arc. At the free throw line, the Mocs were 14-of-22 and outrebounded Mercer 44-41.

Jarrells led the Mocs with 11 points, making 2-of-6 from beyond the arc and Brooke Hampel dropped in 10 points and each had five rebounds. Karsen Murphy came off the bench to score nine points and grab seven rebounds and added a pair of blocked shots.

“We made some adjustments with her defensively when she needed to play the five,” Burrows said. “She has great athleticism. We adjusted to what she needed to do when she plays in the paint and she did a great job.”

Mercer held a slight lead after the first 10 minutes, shooting 42.9 percent, but the Mocs, despite making just 4-of-17 in the opening period, trailed 15-13. Jarrells and Hampel each drained a 3-pointer, keeping the game close.

In the second, the Bears pulled away a bit, outscoring UTC 17-8 and led 32-21 at the break.

The Mocs came out of the locker room scoring a five quick points to close the 11-point halftime gap to 33-26. Mercer, however, responded with a 7-1 run to put the lead back in double digits at 40-27 just over a minute later. But it would be the Mocs game for the last four minutes of the period. UTC went 6-of-8 from the line and Addie Porter put a little English on her last second pull up jumper to end the third and cut the Bears’ lead to 44-39.

Some of the success of keeping Mercer’s scoring low, was limiting the Bears’ offensive rebounds. Mercer had just four in the game and was held scoreless on second chance points.

The Mocs were 7-of-28 from long range with Jarrells and Murphy each connecting on a pair and 14-of-22 from the free throw line with Hampel and Porter combining for 11-of-16 at the charity stripe. Porter added eight points to the Mocs’ effort.

Mercer had 15 points on 12 Chattanooga turnovers, while the Mocs scored 13 on 13 Bears mistakes. Mercer’s Amoria Neal-Tysor led all scorers with 25 points and Erin Houpt added 12. The pair combined for 5-of-6 from the 3-point line. Shannon Titus just missed a double-double with nine points and a game-high 12 rebounds and blocked five shots. The Bears shot 23-of-55 (41.8%) in the game and was 5-of-8 from deep.

UTC falls to 6-17 overall and 4-4 in league play while the Bears improve to 14-6 on the year and 7-1 against the SoCon.

Chattanooga remains at home to host Samford Saturday afternoon in the second game of a double-header with the men’s team. The game is slated for a 3:00 p.m. tip-off depending on the end of the men’s game that tips at Noon on ESPNU.