Wes Moore

Staff Photo by Lesley Onstott
Lady Mocs' Kayla Christopher (3) dribbles the ball towards Villanova's Sarah Jones (10) during the first half of the championship game Saturday. UTC went on to lose by five points.

For the third time in four losses this season, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team was neck-and-neck with its opponent with 10 minutes to play Saturday but couldn't come out on top.

Villanova made the key plays late and knocked off the Lady Mocs, 64-59, in the DoubleTree Classic championship game at McKenzie Arena.

"You look at the Georgia game, the Kentucky game and the Villanova game -- in all three of them at some point we were still in the game down the stretch and weren't able to get it done," Lady Mocs coach Wes Moore said. "Obviously those were some pretty good teams we were playing, but you've got to, especially with a young team, you need to find a way to win some of these and gain some confidence."

The last time a UTC team had four losses this early in the season was the 1995-96 squad coached by Craig Parrott, which dropped five of its first six and finished 12-15. The Lady Mocs begin Southern Conference play Monday at Samford, which finished second to UTC in the standings last season.

"We've got to keep pushing," Lady Mocs senior forward Shanara Hollinquest said. "We can't keep losing all of them."

After trailing by as many as 18 points in the first half, UTC (2-4) cut the Wildcats' lead to 36-28 at the break. Jenaya Wade-Fray's 3-pointer tied the game at 40 with 14:32 remaining and the game was tight the rest of the way, but Villanova (4-1) was able to maintain the lead.

Hollinquest finished with 25 points and nine rebounds, but she didn't have a lot of help. The team's next-leading scorer was Wade-Fray with seven points.

Kylie Lambert hit a free throw with 9:10 remaining to cut Villanova's lead to 54-50. Hollinquest was the only UTC player who scored the rest of the game.

"She obviously has carried the load for us, but we're going to have to get a little more balance in our offense because people are going to try to take her away from it," Moore said.

Maria Getty led Villanova with 15 points and five assists, and Laura Sweeney added 12 points and seven rebounds.

Villanova got off to a hot start, hitting six of its first nine 3-point attempts to help the Wildcats take a 28-12 lead. A Sweeney basket inside later pushed the lead 34-18, but UTC rallied in the closing minutes and cut the lead to 36-28 by halftime.

"They definitely took it to us offensively," Moore said. "We were trying to keep up with all the cuts and fades and back screens; it was tough to guard. I'm proud of the way the kids fought back; we could have gotten buried there in the first half."

After being so hot from 3-point range early in the game, Villanova missed 12 of its last 13 tries, which helped UTC claw its way back and tie the game at 40.

* Kennesaw State 70, Evansville 65

DeAndrea Bullock scored 17 points and Angie Smith and former Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe star Kayla Weaver scored 14 each to lead the Owls past the Purple Aces in the consolation game.

Kennesaw State (3-3) held Evansville (0-5) to 31.6 percent shooting in the second half and had six of its nine steals in the final 20 minutes. Weaver, a freshman, finished 3-for-6 from the field and 7-for-7 on free throws.