UTC, Samford each greatly needs a win

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team has finished atop the Southern Conference standings 11 years in a row. Samford has been second the past two seasons, its first two in the league.

Both teams have been up and down in SoCon play so far this season, which is why they find themselves in a three-way tie with Georgia Southern for fourth place entering tonight's matchup at Samford.

"I'm probably more surprised, really, that they [are in fourth]," UTC coach Wes Moore said of the Lady Bulldogs.

Samford (12-6, 5-4) has lost three of its last four games, while UTC (8-10, 5-4) has lost two of its last three. Both are looking up at Appalachian State, Elon and UNC Greensboro, who have two SoCon losses each.

After tonight, UTC and Samford will be halfway through their 20-game league schedules. One team will be 6-4, the other 5-5. If either is going to challenge for the league title, its run toward the top probably needs to start with this game.

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"I think the most important thing for us, we're just trying to survive," Samford coach Mike Morris said. "We're just trying to get better as a basketball team and can't get caught up in something that could happen a month or six or seven weeks down the road."

During UTC's unprecedented run of 11 straight SoCon titles, the Lady Mocs have claimed the regular-season crown with four losses twice -- last season and in 2001-02, when they shared the title with UNCG.

Moore said he doesn't think the Lady Mocs are out of the title race, but they're going to have to play at a much higher level, and with much more energy and passion, to get in the hunt.

"I think whoever wins [the SoCon] is going to have several losses, but we're getting close to that threshold where you may not be able to overcome it," he said. "Again, it's more about we've got to get better. It's more about five or six weeks from now, when we get to March, we've got to be a whole lot better than we are now."

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