The last time the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team got a guard from Oliver Springs, the Lady Mocs got a four-year starter in Laura Hall. Kayla Christopher would like to have a similar career.

Christopher, a 5-foot-9 senior guard at Oliver Springs, committed to the Lady Mocs on Sunday after taking her official visit last weekend.

“I liked the girls, I felt at home and I thought I’d have the opportunity to come in and do well there,” Christopher said. “For a while I was very torn between (Middle Tennessee State) and Chattanooga, but lately everything was pointing to Chattanooga.

“I’m very relieved to have made my decision and to know where I’m going.”

Christopher, who also had offers from Louisville and Kentucky, led Oliver Springs, where she’s coached by her mother, Michelle, to the final of last year’s Class A tournament. A Miss Basketball finalist last season, she averaged 21 points, 3.8 steals and 3.0 rebounds per game.

The Lady Mocs have won nine consecutive Southern Conference championships, and Christopher said she was eager to be a part of such a successful program.

“That was one of the things I really liked about Chattanooga,” she said. “I know being there is going to make me a better player, and I like going to a program where you expect to win all the time.”

Christopher is the Lady Mocs’ fourth commitment for next season, joining Cookeville’s Erin Helton, McMin Central’s Kylie Lambert and Michelle Davis, the former Cleveland standout who signed with North Carolina State before transferring. Davis is enrolled at UTC but must sit out this season.

n Former UTC star Jennifer Wilson Galloway, the head girls’ basketball coach at Knoxville’s new Hardin Valley High School, will be the guest speaker tonight for Lady Mocs Appreciation Night. She scored 1,171 points during a four-year SoCon title run.

The event starts at 7 p.m. in the dance studio in McKenzie Arena. It is free and open to the public.

Comments