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Wes Moore
Slideshow: Lady Mocs win 78-33
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — The “new season” got off to an old, familiar start for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team Friday. The Lady Mocs won big.
The top seed in the Southern Conference tournament, UTC played perhaps its finest first half of the season and went on to rout UNC Greensboro 78-33 in the quarterfinals at the North Charleston Coliseum. The 45-point win was a tournament record, and UTC’s 13 3-pointers tied an 11-year-old event record.
During a particularly productive stretch in the first half, the Lady Mocs (27-3) scored on 11 consecutive possessions as they cruised to their 22nd consecutive win. Shanara Hollinquest scored 15 points and Brooke Hand added 11 to lead nine UTC players with five or more points.
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Staff Photo by Angela Lewis-- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's Brooke Hand shoots as the University of North Carolina Greensboro's Lakiah Hyson guards in the Southern Conference game at the North Charleston Coliseum on Friday. The number one seed UTC won the game 78-33.
“The shots were falling for us, we were clicking and it was a fun game,” said conference player of the year Alex Anderson, who had nine points and nine rebounds in just 19 minutes of action.
After marching through the SoCon schedule without a loss, winning 16 of 18 games by 10 or more points, the Lady Mocs (27-3) stressed in recent weeks that the postseason was a “new season,” in which every team in the conference can be a contender. Against UNCG (7-24), they showed they were still very much the team to beat.
Not only was the Lady Mocs’ offense on target — the starters were 18-for-37 from the floor and 7-for-14 from 3-point range — but the 33 points UTC allowed was the fewest of the season and tied for the fewest in tournament history. The Spartans shot just 20.4 percent from the field.
“We played the dynasty of the Southern Conference today,” UNC Greensboro coach Lynne Agee said, “and they completely controlled us.”
The Lady Mocs, winners of the past two SoCon tournaments and six of the past seven, did just about everything right in their first game since Feb. 28. They had the advantage in rebounding (46-33), turnovers (11-16), points off turnovers (30-0) and 3-pointers (13-2).
They made seven of their first nine 3-point attempts, which helped turn a game that was tied at 5 with 17:27 to play in the first half into a 31-13 blowout less than 10 minutes later. Seven Lady Mocs hit at least one 3; Hand and Erin Ogan made three each, and Laura Hall and Jenaya Wade-Fray each knocked down two.
UTC coach Wes Moore said he had “been miserable” with concern since watching UNCG beat Appalachian State on Thursday, but his players took the worry away quickly.
“This group is pretty mature, pretty confident, and they took care of business,” he said.
Starting with Ogan’s 3-pointer 7:28 into the game, five of the Lady Mocs’ 11 straight scoring possessions ended in 3s.
“It’s never easy because their defense is out there guarding us, but if we’re clicking like that it does make it easier on us,” said Ogan, who had nine points and four rebounds in 16 minutes off the bench.
The Lady Mocs didn’t have a starter on the floor for more than 23 minutes and don’t play again until Sunday, when they face the winner of today’s game between No. 4 seed Georgia Southern and fifth-seeded College of Charleston.
John Frierson is in his fifth year at the Times Free Press and fifth year covering University of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletics. The bulk of his time is spent covering Mocs football, but he also writes about women’s basketball and the big-picture issues and news involving the athletic department. A native of Athens, Ga., John grew up a few hundred yards from the University of Georgia campus. Instead of becoming a Bulldog he attended Ole ...
