The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team snapped a six-game losing streak in dominating fashion Saturday, jumping out to an 18-3 lead after a quarter and never looking back in a 63-47 win over Western Carolina at the Ramsey Center in Cullowhee, North Carolina.
The Mocs improved to 7-20 overall and 5-7 in the Southern Conference, with regular-season games remaining for UTC against Wofford and Furman prior to the conference tournament on March 3-6 in Asheville, North Carolina. UTC is at home for both of those games, facing Furman (15-11, 8-4) at 7 p.m. Thursday at McKenzie Arena and Wofford (14-11, 9-2) at 1:30 p.m. next Saturday.
The Mocs played their fifth consecutive game without leading scorer and rebounder Abbey Cornelius, who is out with a lower-body injury. Yet this time it didn’t matter, as the Mocs made 11 of 19 shots from 3-point range at Western Carolina.
“I’m just so proud of the resilience and just the grit that our kids are displaying right now as they continue to push through,” UTC coach Katie Burrows said on the postgame radio broadcast. “It helps when you make 11 3s, but I felt like our defense was really good today.”
Destiny McClendon knocked down a career-high four 3-pointers on her way to a team-high 17 points, which also set a new standard for the freshman. Dena Jarrells made a trio of 3s and had 13 points, while Addie Porter knocked down a pair of 3s and finished with 12 points. She also had a team-high seven rebounds and four steals in just 23 minutes of action as Burrows was able to empty the bench against the Catamounts (6-21, 0-13).