UTC Women Grab Sole Possession of First Place After Beating Furman 70-63
(gomocs.com)
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Chattanooga broke out the pink Thursday night in its Breast Cancer Awareness game and came away with a 70-63 win over Furman and sole possession of first place in the Southern Conference women’s basketball standings.
The Mocs hit first and hard getting out to a 10-1 lead to start the game and led wire-to-wire. UTC kept up the pressure on the Paladins who made a late charge to make it close at the end.
In the first quarter the Mocs lead hit double-digits, 22-12, on Raven Thompson’s layup in the final seconds of the opening frame. That lead grew to 13 in the second quarter with the Mocs holding a 41-28 advantage at the half.
Chattanooga grew that lead to 50-30, its largest of the game at the 6:44 mark behind a 9-2 run to start the third. Sigrun Olafsdottir forced a turnover and raced down the court for the layup to start the half.
Yazz Wazeerud-Din got the next points for the Mocs and an intentional foul by Furman’s post, send the graduate transfer to the line for a pair of free throws, pushing the lead to 48-30. A steal by Abbey Cornelius a minute later resulted in a layup by Addie Grace Porter to put UTC up by 20.
UTC led 57-41 heading into the final quarter, but the Paladins pushed back and outscored UTC 22-13 in the final frame, but it wouldn’t be enough, even with Chattanooga’s starters on the bench.
Cornelius just missed a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds. She was perfect on the night making 3-of-3 from the field and all five free throw attempts while getting a pair of blocked shots, two assists and two steals.
Wazeerud-Din led all scorers with 23 points. She was 7-of-15 from the field with three 3-pointers and made 6-of-8 from the free throw line. Thompson shot 66.7 percent from the field with 17 points on 8-of-12 form the field goal and drained a 3-pointer. Addie Grace Porter had six points with four assists and four rebounds while Olafsdottir added eight points.
The Mocs shot 50 percent for the fourth time this season making 27-of-54 from the field.
Chattanooga improves to 16-10 overall and 8-3 in the SoCon standings. Furman drops to 10-16 on the year and 2-9 against the conference.
The Mocs will host Wofford, who fell tonight at ETSU, in a 7:00 p.m. tip on Saturday. The game will be aired live on ESPN3 and WFLI radio.
FROM THE HEAD COACH
Opening Statement“Thanks so much for everyone coming out tonight. Thanks for the crowd. A special, special night for many different reasons. Obviously our breast cancer awareness, really just cancer in general, you know to to play a sport that hopefully honors them in a way that we got their back whether they’re fighting currently or have fought that kind of touched each and each and every one of us, I’m sure even in here different ways and so a special night.” “I thought our kids came out and competed yet again. We executed for about three and a half quarters. I’d like to finish a little bit better, but overall we got the job done. I think it could have been very easy to overlook tonight with as big of a game as Saturday was leading into the week. But I thought we really stayed focused, locked in and had some really good performances. Who you just talked to, Yazz. That kid has been battling some illness all week. Went through half a shoot around today. And I told her that we’re going to probably try to do the same thing on Saturday because she was pretty special tonight.”
TOP TAKEAWAYS
• Chattanooga moved into sole possession of first place with the win and a loss by Wofford at ETSU.
• Chattanooga is 5-0 when scoring 70 or more points … the Mocs are 4-0 when shooting 50 percent or better.
• Chattanooga outscored Furman 42-16 in the paint.
