UTC Gets Hot in the Fourth Quarter to Turn Back Furman in SoCon Tourney
(gomocs.com) ASHEVILLE—The Chattanooga Mocs toppled Furman 63-52 in the quarterfinals of the Southern Conference Women’s Basketball Championship presented by Ingles. The win advances the second-seeded Mocs to Friday’s semifinals. Raven Thompson led a quartet of double-digit scorers with 17 points, 13 rebounds and four steals. Yazz Wazeerud-Din added 16, while Abbey Cornelius and Addie Grace Porter chipped in 12 and 11, respectively. Jaelyn Acker paced the Paladins with 13 points off the bench. The Mocs head into Friday’s semifinals facing ETSU. That contest is scheduled for 1:15 p.m., in the Harrah’s Cherokee Center and airs on ESPN+. HOW IT HAPPENEDThe Mocs took a page out of football defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward’s playbook with a 34-13 blitz in the final 12-plus minutes. It was an impressive turn of the page trailing by 10, 39-29, with 2:30 to play in the third. Cornelius got it started with her patented hook shot around the basket followed by Porter’s midrange jumper. Yazz’s triple at 0:34 ended the period, but not the onslaught. The Mocs took their first lead of the game on two Porter free throws 3:06 into the third. The run grew to 18-4 on Wazeerud-Din’s three off the fastbreak after yet another defensive stop. That lead change was the only one of the game. Furman scored on its next possession, but the Mocs kept piling it on. The lead grew to 10 on Thompson’s 3pt play at 1:15. It reached its zenith at 13 on two Cornelius free throws with 20 seconds to go. Kate Johnson ended the scoring with a putback at the buzzer for the 11-point final margin. It was an uphill battle for the Mocs. They trailed by nine in the opening quarter and 10 in the third. The ladies got back into it time and again over the second period getting within three, 27-24, at the break. It appeared to be the Paladins day midway through the third. However, the Mocs had something special for those final 12-plus minutes. Chattanooga hit over 63 percent of their shots in the fourth quarter. RECORDS/SERIESChattanooga (18-12) | Furman (11-19)Series: Chattanooga leads 59-31 all-time / Chattanooga leads 8-4 in SoCon Tournament Meetings NOTES TO KNOW
- 60th all-time win in the Southern Conference Championships including 24 in the pre-semifinal rounds. The Mocs 18 titles is the league standard by a wide margin.
- The win swept the season series (3-0) with the Paladins and avenged losses in the last two quarterfinal rounds to Furman.
- 10 steals in the contest created a +8 turnover margin and 16-10 advantage in points off turnovers. It’s the sixth game with 10 or more this season and second against Furman.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
- The Paladins won the first and third quarters 33-24, but the Mocs were a bit better in the even ones, 39-19 Including the decisive fourth.
- The Mocs made just 12 of their first 41 shots (29.3%) before hitting 10 of the last 14 (71.4%) including four of five (80%) from three.
- Furman led for 31:18 of the contest, but Chattanooga led the final 6:54.
