UTC has won 35 in a row in South Carolina

The Palmetto State has been the playground of late for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball program.

The Lady Mocs (26-3) have been winning repeatedly in and around Charleston, and pretty much everywhere else in the state of South Carolina. The Southern Conference tournament begins Thursday at the North Charleston Coliseum, and UTC is the top seed after winning its ninth straight regular-season title by going 18-0 in conference play.

When the Lady Mocs take the floor Friday to face the winner of Thursday’s game between Appalachian State and UNC Greensboro, they have plenty of reasons to be confident and comfortable, not the least of which is that they haven’t lost since Dec. 1.

“I think we’re always confident, but I don’t think we’re overconfident,” UTC senior guard Brooke Hand said.

The Lady Mocs have won six consecutive regular-season games at Furman, six straight at the College of Charleston and 12 in a row at Wofford. They also won at Clemson on Nov. 16, 2006.

The last time the Lady Mocs lost a game in South Carolina was on March 4, 2000, when they fell 73-67 to UNC Greensboro in the SoCon tournament final in Greenville. Since then, UTC has won 35 in a row within the state lines.

Lady Mocs coach Wes Moore is used to winning in South Carolina. During his three seasons as coach at Division II Francis Marion University in Florence, his teams went 69-20.

“Those years at Francis Marion are paying off now,” Moore said sarcastically Tuesday. “I’ve got all those people on our side down there.”

Moore largely dismissed the Lady Mocs’ Palmetto State run as just a quirk. He said it won’t help them any come Friday.

“It’s a new season, so we really don’t worry about what’s happened in the past — good, bad or ugly,” he said.

Of those 35 consecutive wins in South Carolina, 15 have come in SoCon tournaments. The Lady Mocs have won six of the last seven conference tournaments, with all of those games in Charleston or North Charleston.

The only time since 2001 the Lady Mocs have come up empty in the SoCon tournament was in 2005 at UTC; they lost in the quarterfinals to East Tennessee State 55-50 in Maclellan Gym.

The Lady Mocs will climb aboard the team bus and begin their South Carolina journey today. They are scheduled to practice at the University of South Carolina’s Colonial Center before pushing on to Charleston.

“It’s a fun time of year,” Moore said, “so hopefully the players are excited and will come out with the energy you usually have when you start a new season.”