Lady Vols rally past University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, 66-63

A shot to win: What more could the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team ask for against the two-time defending national champions?

Down a point with 2.6 seconds left Friday night against the Tennessee Lady Vols, UTC wasn’t able to get that final shot off, or even get the ball inbounds. When Megan Rollins couldn’t get the ball in from the Lady Vols’ baseline, she tried to call time out to avoid a five-second call, but the Lady Mocs didn’t have any timeouts left.

That resulted in a technical foul on UTC, two free throws and the ball for Tennessee, and the fifth-ranked Lady Vols escaped McKenzie Arena with a 66-63 win in front of a crowd of 7,008, the fourth-largest crowd ever to see a UTC women’s game at the Roundhouse.

“Tennessee tradition, Pat Summitt, all those things — you get a chance and you hate to let it slip away,” Lady Mocs coach Wes Moore said dejectedly.

Rollins, a junior college transfer who played only two minutes in the Lady Mocs’ season opener against East Tennessee State on Monday, said she didn’t know UTC was out of timeouts, having confused one called by the Lady Mocs (1-1) as a media timeout.

Moore said not making sure the players knew the timeout situation was one of several coaching mistakes he made.

“There’s a lot of things I’m going to look back on and second-guess myself over,” he said.

Tennessee (2-1) led 36-33 after a first half in which the teams were a combined 19-for-56 from the field and were called for a total of 29 fouls. The Lady Vols tried to pull away in the first seven minutes of the second half and appeared to be on their way when Glory Johnson, who had 19 points and 13 rebounds, scored inside for a 49-39 lead.

But the scrappy Lady Mocs did more than hang in there. They went on a 19-1 run that put them up 58-50 with 8:08 remaining. In that spurt, which had the home crowd roaring, Jenaya Wade-Fray hit a 3-pointer, Shanara Hollinquest scored inside, Erin Ogan hit a 3, Bailey Dewart hit a 3, Dewart hit another 3, Rollins made a jump shot and Dewart hit one more 3.

Hollinquest led UTC with 17 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out.

“We played our hearts out,” said Dewart, who was 4-for-6 on 3s and had 12 points off the bench.

Tennessee missed 20 free throws in the game and “played about the most miserable defense that a team can play when it comes to defending the 3 ball,” Summitt said.

But the Lady Vols didn’t panic when the going got its toughest. The Lady Mocs, meanwhile — in position for the biggest win in the program’s history — got tight.

Tennessee rallied and eventually tied the game at 63 when Alicia Manning hit a 3-pointer from the left corner with 1:21 remaining. The Lady Vols attempted 11 3-pointers in the game, but that was the only one they made.

Soon after, Hollinquest was whistled for her fifth foul and Vicki Baugh made one of two free throws to put Tennessee back in front with 52 seconds left. On UTC’s next possession, both Rollins and Wade-Fray missed short jumpers before Tennessee grabbed the rebound.

Ogan was called for her fifth foul while going for a rebound on the ensuing possession, but Baugh missed and LaCondra Mason grabbed the rebound and called time out with 2.6 seconds left. Tennessee, which closed the game on a 16-5 run, didn’t let Rollins get the ball in and managed to avoid a monumental upset.

“We were in position where we had to make a run, and we did,” Summit said. “For the most part they outplayed us.”

Tennessee hosts Louisiana Tech on Sunday. UTC plays at Middle Tennessee State on Tuesday.