A few late breaks and some clutch free throws by Shanara Hollinquest and Kayla Christopher lifted the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team to a 59-56 win Saturday over Appalachian State.
The Lady Mocs rallied from 10 points down with just under 12 minutes left to pick up a crucial Southern Conference victory in front of an announced crowd of 3,077 at McKenzie Arena. Hollinquest's two free throws with 18.4 seconds left proved to be the decisive points, and Christopher sealed the victory with two more in the closing seconds.
"It was a good win, a good comeback, and it will help us down the stretch," said Hollinquest, who totaled 10 points and seven rebounds.
The Lady Mocs (19-7, 14-3) remain in first place in the SoCon, one game ahead of Samford. Earlier this season, UTC outscored Appalachian State 17-2 over the final five minutes to win 60-53.
ASU had won seven games in a row and led 56-55 with 34 seconds left when its standout freshman forward, Ashlen Dewart, was fouled. She missed both free throws, and the chase for the rebound after the second miss led to a dogpile on the court.
A whistle was blown with 29.5 seconds left, and after some discussion among the officials -- it appeared that a jump ball had been called, with possession going to the Mountaineers -- UTC was awarded possession.
"I'm really not sure what happened there," UTC coach Wes Moore said.
Appalachian State coach Darcie Vincent said she was told there was an inadvertent whistle -- the second of the game -- while the Lady Mocs had possession, and that's why UTC got the ball.
"We didn't do the right things to win the game for eight minutes when we couldn't score, but we didn't lose this basketball game today. It was stolen from us, for no reason," Vincent said.
After all the confusion, the Lady Mocs, still down by a point, got the ball to Hollinquest down low. The senior and reigning SoCon player of the year was fouled and swished both free throws to give UTC a 57-56 lead.
Chakeitha Weldon missed a 14-foot jumper on the ensuing possession and the rebound went out of bounds to UTC, though the ASU bench jumped up in protest, saying a UTC player had touched it.
Christopher, who had 12 points and six rebounds, hit two free throws with 5.9 seconds left to put UTC up 59-56, and Jenaya Wade-Fray stole the ball as time expired to preserve the win.
Appalachian State (14-10, 10-5) was up 50-40 with 11:47 left but then went more than nine minutes without scoring.
The Mountaineers led by 11 in the first half, but UTC was able to hang around and cut the lead to 33-28 going into halftime. ASU's Sam Ramirez led all scorers with 19 points and Dewart, the younger sister of UTC's Bailey Dewart, scored 16.
While ASU was in command of the game, freshman Kylie Lambert kept UTC within reach with four 3-pointers. She finished with a career-high 12 points and five rebounds.
The Lady Mocs will face another crucial game against another team near the top of the SoCon standings, Davidson, on Monday. Samford beat Davidson 73-57 on Saturday.