CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Wes Moore used to turn red when things weren't going as he expected for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team.
But he's kept the top button of his shirts unbuttoned under his tie for most of the season, which improves his circulation.
The coach loosened his brown tie a bit more following the Lady Mocs' comfortable 82-64 victory over UNC Greensboro on Friday in the quarterfinals of the Southern Conference tournament.
"The first half was a little frustrating and I was getting a little red," Moore said. "But it was more pink in the second half."
Shanara Hollinquest helped the coach keep cool in spacious Bojangles Coliseum. The SoCon player of the year led five UTC double-figure scorers with 24 points, including the 13th and 14th 3-pointers of her career.
Tenisha Townsend added 15 points, Michelle Davis scored 14, Kayla Christopher had 13 and Jenaya Wade-Fray had 10.
Lakiah Hyson led the Spartans (10-20) with 16 points despite playing only 20 minutes due to foul trouble. Anges Girstautaite had 13 points and Kendra Smith scored 12.
"Shanara was Shanara with another great game, Michelle Davis' four 3s off the bench were critical, and Tenisha is playing her best basketball," said Moore, who is 24-4 in SoCon tournament games. "She's running the team and knocking down shots. It was a great team effort."
The Lady Mocs (22-8) earned a day off and will play the winner of today's matchup between Georgia Southern and the College of Charleston at noon Sunday in Time Warner Arena.
"It's pretty exciting to play where (the Charlotte Bobcats) play," Christopher said. "We drove by it and it's going to be pretty fun. But we have to get a lot of rest tomorrow and when we practice, focus on who we'll be playing."
UNCG beat Western Carolina 57-55 on Thursday and began Friday's game right where it left off, while the Lady Mocs showed first-game jitters.
But UTC used a 10-0 run to take a 26-13 lead and force UNCG coach Lynn Agee to call a timeout.
The Spartans rallied in the final minutes but missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer and trailed 35-27 at halftime.
UTC had 11 turnovers at the break but was in control by shooting 52.7 percent from the floor while the Spartans shot 33.3 percent and missed all nine of their first-half 3-point attempts.
"I thought we started off with a bang," said Agee, who is 0-5 against Moore in the tournament. "We didn't rebound well at all. We hardly had any second chances. We had missed shots; we didn't box out."
The errors resulted in the Lady Mocs slowly building second-half leads of 10, 15 and eventually 20 points with 2:12 to play. UTC made only one turnover in the second half.
"I think we got our jitters out," Hollinquest said. "In the second half, we calmed down and started hitting shots."
That, too, helped keep her coach cool.