University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior Sharana Hollinquest hit the game-winning free throws in the Lady Mocs' 59-56 win over Appalachian State on Saturday. Meanwhile, Mountaineers junior Sam Ramirez led all scorers with 19 points. But in many ways, the day belonged to the freshmen.
First-year players for both teams made key plays and hit big shot after big shot.
"(UTC coach Wes Moore) told us we're not freshmen anymore," UTC freshman Erin Helton said. "After first semester, we're all the same and we have to play like that. We don't have the freshman excuse anymore."
The Southern Conference-leading Lady Mocs (19-7, 14-3) had no answer for Appalachian State's 6-foot-3 freshman Ashlen Dewart, at least not for the first 30 minutes. A leading candidate for SoCon freshman of the year, Dewart finished with 16 points and eight rebounds.
Appalachian State's other freshman forward, Anna Freeman, isn't the offensive threat that Dewart is but had 4 points and 14 rebounds Saturday.
The Lady Mocs, who host Davidson tonight at McKenzie Arena, got off to a slow start Saturday and could have been buried by halftime if it wasn't for redshirt freshman Michelle Davis and true freshmen Kayla Christopher and Kylie Lambert.
Davis scored all 8 of her points during an eight-minute stretch in the first half, two of Lambert's four 3-pointers came in the opening half and Christopher scored 7 of her 12 points in the half -- and later hit two free throws with 5.9 seconds left in the game.
The trio combined for 21 of UTC's 28 first-half points. It was a breakout performance for Lambert whose previous career high was 7 points.
"This year I haven't been shooting as well as I'd planned on," Lambert said, "but when we were shooting around (Saturday) morning and before the game I was shooting a lot better, and I had a feeling that it was going to be a good shooting game."
Helton had missed UTC's past five games heading into Saturday after having a cyst removed, and she wasn't able to just ease back into the flow of the game. Helton didn't see the floor until the 12:27 mark of the second half, when the Lady Mocs were down 48-37.
The 6-2 forward only had 2 points and two rebounds in her 11 minutes of action, but she defended Dewart well and UTC was able to go on a 16-6 run while she was on the floor.
"I was very nervous getting back out there, I'm not going to lie, but I just tried my hardest," Helton said.
Davidson (12-12, 10-6) has two freshman starters in 6-3 center Sarah Davis and 6-4 forward Sophia Aleksandravicius. In her first season, Aleksandravicius has 10 double-doubles and five games with 19 or more points, including a season-high 28 at Furman.