University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball players don't have the best memories of their past two trips to Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville.
There was the loss to Pittsburgh in the first round of last season's NCAA tournament. There was also an 80-56 loss to Tennessee's Lady Vols on Nov. 14, 2013.
Of course, Tennessee coach Holly Warlick doesn't have the best memories of her two trips in McKenzie Arena, as the Mocs have won both meetings with the fourth-year head coach in Chattanooga: 80-71 on Nov. 9, 2012, and 67-63 last season.
She said the best thing about tonight's clash between the fourth-ranked Lady Vols (3-0) and 24th-ranked Mocs (3-1), which starts at 7 and can be seen on the SEC Network's online platform, is that it is at Thompson-Boling Arena.
"I'm 0-2 down there, so I feel a lot better," Warlick said after Friday's win over Syracuse. "I don't like going down there, because my record is bad. We've got to speed up the game, and they are going to try and slow down the game. It's going to be on the will of who's more determined, and it will be a great challenge for us."
The Mocs controlled the pace in last season's win. They also did that in the first half of the 2013 game in Knoxville, which was tied at 32 at halftime, but Tennessee took over in the final 20 minutes, making 18 of its 34 shots and outscoring UTC 48-24 for the 24-point win.
UTC was 8-for-35 in the final 20 minutes.
"I remember a lot of chaos in the second half," UTC junior forward Jasmine Joyner said. "This year, if we're tied at the half, we can't get comfortable. We have to keep fighting until the end of the ballgame."
The Lady Vols will enter tonight's game with a number of streaks. They've won their past 25 games at home and have 15 straight home wins over nonconference opponents and their past eight over ranked teams at home, although when the polls come out today, UTC might not be ranked after a loss at Indiana last week.
The Mocs did get back on the right track Friday, winning 53-48 over Southern Miss in overtime, led by Joyner's 20 points and 13 rebounds. After hitting only two 3-pointers in her first 61 career games at UTC, the 6-foot-2 junior made three against the Golden Eagles.
For the season she is averaging 10.8 points, 10.3 rebounds and 5.3 blocks per game despite missing vast portions of the game against Butler due to foul trouble.
"It's tough to play there (at Thompson-Boling) because of their fans," Joyner said. "They feel because they're at home, they automatically have a win, so we have to play tough. This is a game where we determine we have to come together, and a game where we have to play together and play smart. We can't be scared. We have to be on our toes, because they're going to come at us."
UTC should get back junior guard Chelsey Shumpert, who missed the Southern Miss game after an injury suffered late in the game against Indiana. The 5-foot-4 junior is the team's third-leading scorer behind Joyner and sophomore guard/forward Keiana Gilbert, who leads the team with 13.8 points per game.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.