Staff Photo by Tim Barber/Chattanooga Times Free Press
Lady Mocs head coach Wes Moore is guiding his squad toward another successfull year in the Southern Conference.After opening its season last Friday with a historic 80-71 upset of then-No. 20 Tennessee, the UT-Chattanooga women's basketball team received votes in this week's Associated Press Top 25, released Monday.
It was the program's first win over the legendary Lady Vols program in the Division I era, and the challenge for the Lady Mocs this week, starting tonight at Belmont (1-1), is keeping the win from going to their heads.
"No doubt about it," UTC coach Wes Moore said. "I've talked to them about not letting that game be the highlight of our year. We showed them the film and showed them a lot of things we could have done better and we have to improve on. Hopefully they understand that."
Moore said he also referenced the Alabama football team, which lost to Texas A&M last week after fighting for a big win the week before at LSU.
"You've got to put that big game behind you or it's going to come back to bite you," said Moore, whose team is No. 24 in this week's RealTime RPI.com ranking.
Lady Mocs junior forward Taylor Hall said after the Tennessee win that UTC needs to build on the win.
"We know this was just one game and we have to not forget about but use this confidence and not get cocky about it," she said. "We still have to play and do what we did tonight every night."
Hall was named the Southern Conference player of the week Tuesday. She tied a career high with 24 points against the Lady Vols and filled up the stat sheet with nine rebounds, five assists, four steals and three blocked shots.
Junior center Faith Dupree, a Tennessee transfer, said beating her old team was satisfying, though she felt bad for some of her close friends on UT's roster. Moving forward, she said the Lady Mocs need to play with the same energy that they did against Tennessee.
"Our challenge is to play every game as if we were playing Tennessee every game," she said. "If we play with that kind of energy, we're going to be fine."
UTC returns to McKenzie Arena on Saturday night for a 7:30 game against East Tennessee State.
Contact John Frierson at jfrierson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6268. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/mocsbeatCTFP.