Mocs women second half rally not enough against Bucs

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (UTC Athletics) — The Chattanooga Mocs fought a hard second half Saturday afternoon at The McKenzie Arena before falling 65-62 to East Tennessee State in Southern Conference women’s basketball action.

Chattanooga moves to 6-19 on the year and 4-6 in league play while the Bucs improve to 3-19 overall and 3-7 against the SoCon.

The Mocs trailed 40-24 at halftime and came out on fire in the third, starting the quarter on a 7-0 run and outscoring the Bucs 23-8 in the period to make it a one-point game headed into the fourth.

Chattanooga took a brief lead late in the third on a five-point stretch by Dena Jarrells. After draining a timely 3-pointer to pull the Mocs to within a point, 46-45, with 1:11 remaining in the period, the sophomore guard popped the ball away from ETSU’s Courtney Moore and went the length of the court for a layup, giving the Mocs the lead for the first time.

The fourth quarter started much the same as the third for UTC. After the Bucs retook the lead at the end of the third, Destiny McClendon hit a 3-pointer to give the Mocs the lead for a second time and Karsen Murphy’s jumper from outside the paint put UTC up 52-48 less than a minute into the final period.

ETSU, however, retook advantage with a five-point stretch of its own to lead 53-52 seconds later. UTC’s Addie Grace Porter drove the lane for a layup to put the Mocs back on top one final time, leading 54-53 with 7:19 to play.

The Bucs pushed the lead to 62-54 with 3:08 remaining in the game, but UTC would not be kept down. Amaria Pugh sank both free throws and Sigrun Olafsdottir made good on a fast break to cut the ETSU lead to 62-58 with just over two minutes remaining. The Buccaneers bounced back with a layup to stretch the lead back to six points with 1:46 to play.

Murphy, again, connected on a short jumper and the Bucs’ head coach Simon Harris called for time. After substitutions and strategy discussions, ETSU turned the ball over on a bad pass that was scooped up by Pugh for her game-high fourth steal.

Chattanooga couldn’t covert that into points, but Porter got the steal and the Mocs had another chance. Pugh drew a foul and hit both of her free throws to make it a 64-62 game with 46 seconds to play.

After a bit of back and forth and no scoring by either team, ETSU drew a foul and made the first of two free throws with 11.8 seconds on the clock for a three-point advantage. The second missed and Brooke Hampel grabbed the defensive board and Mocs head coach Katie Burrows called for time to set up the final play.

Chattanooga got the ball inbounded, but a 3-pointer from the right side fell short as time ran down and UTC would not get another chance as the game ended.

“We had a good talk at halftime,” Burrows said. “We were able to make those adjustments. The unfortunate thing was we’d have a turnover or give up an offensive rebound at a very untimely point in the game and just couldn’t quite put the nail in the coffin. I told them I was very proud of the way they battled back and very frustrated that we even had to be in that situation.”

Karsen Murphy came off the bench to put up some big numbers for the Mocs. She had a career-high 14 points and six blocked shots and added five rebounds, four on the offensive end. Three of Murphy’s blocked shots came on one play. She had three denials late in the first quarter, the Mocs got the ball on the third and Murphy grabbed on offensive board on the other end with a put back for the score.

“She started cleaning stuff up for us, you know. That’s usually Abbey’s [Cornelius] role, right? Clean stuff up before some get by us and get to the rim and she did that for us today. In blocked shots and rebounds and then offensively was able to knock down some shots in very key moments.”

Dena Jarrells had a game-high 15 points for Chattanooga, making a trio of 3-pointers and connecting on all four of her free throws. She dished out four assists and had two steals. Pugh had four steals and was the third Moc in double digits with 10 points, making 6-of-7 from the charity stripe. Sigrun Olafsdottir added eight points and three assists with a pair of steals and six rebounds.

The Mocs scored 11 second chance points on 10 offensive rebounds while getting edged on points off turnovers 14-12. UTC was 21-of-59 for the game and 7-of-23 from deep while making 13-of-18 from the free throw line.

ETSU was led in scoring by jakhyia Davis and Courtney Moore with 15 apiece, seven rebounds and two assists. Amaya Adams added nine points while Sarah Thompson had eight points, five rebounds and a team-best three assists.

Chattanooga will close out the road portion of the regular season next week with a Thursday matchup at UNC Greensboro and then travel to Western Carolina for a Saturday tilt. Follow all the action online at GoMocs.com.