It wasn't the most awe-inspiring victory Saturday for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team, but it was way better than the alternative.
The Mocs got 33 points from the two-headed monster of guard Jada Guinn and forward Raven Thompson and led for the final 31 minutes of a 75-62 win over Division II member UVA Wise at McKenzie Arena.
Next up for the Mocs (4-1) is a trip to Florida for the Daytona Beach Classic, with games against Kent State (1-1) on Friday and Northern Kentucky (1-2) on Saturday.
Guinn (17 points, five rebounds, three assists) and Thompson (16 points, eight rebounds) have become the most consistent part of the offense so far in Shawn Poppie's second season as head coach at UTC, but point guard Addie Porter contributed 13 points and four rebounds, knocking down a pair of 3-pointers.
She was 1-for-11 from 3-point range this season prior to Saturday.
"That was maybe the bright spot of the day," Poppie said. "As I said in our pregame speech, I'll tell you the truth. We've lived in here (the gym) the last couple of days and tried to get some confidence back in her jump shot.
"She tried to get us going out there; that's probably why we're plus-19 while she's out there in 32 minutes."
Poppie did express some frustration by the lack of production in the post, a place where the team doesn't have a ton of depth. Karsen Murphy, the starter, had six points but was limited to 14 minutes due to foul trouble -- three days after she scored 14 points before fouling out in a lopsided win at Tennessee Tech -- while backups Takia Davis and Kailyn Ferrell combined for seven points and six rebounds in 27 minutes.
The Cavaliers had 36 points in the paint.
"Our weakness is in our center position on both ends of the floor, and we're starting to get exposed," Poppie said. "Karsen was fine against Tennessee Tech on Wednesday, but outside of that our five is being exposed.
"We may need a couple of days to figure ourselves out. I do love our team as people, so there's no personal feelings when I walked back in here, it's just as basketball players and how do we fix that before we get down there Friday."
Katlin Burger had a game-high 21 points for UVA Wise and was joined in double figures by Caitlyn Ross with 18.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.