The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team battled back from a dreadful start Wednesday at home against Cincinnati, but fell short in a 63-52 loss to the Bearcats to fall to 1-10 on the season.
UTC hosts North Alabama Saturday at 2 at McKenzie Arena in the second of a three-game homestand.
The Mocs missed all 14 of their field-goal attempts in the first quarter of Wednesday’s game and didn’t make a shot until the 4:46 mark of the second quarter when Dena Jarrells, who finished with a team-high 17 points, knocked down the first of her five 3-pointers. That was part of a 20-0 Mocs run that cut the Bearcat lead to 24-23 early in the third quarter, but the visitors had stretched the lead back out to 11 points after three quarters.
The Mocs would put together one final run, cutting the lead to 53-52 on an Amaria Pugh driving layup with 3:12 to play, but Cincinnati (6-4) finished the game on a 10-0 run.
“We’re just not getting it done right now, and it’s hard,” UTC head coach Katie Burrows said on the postgame radio broadcast. “It’s hard for me, it’s hard for our fans. It really is and I get it; I mean, I’m in the same boat, right? So I just think, if we all just keep being patient – and I keep telling my girls to just be patient – it’s going to come.
“It’s going to come and when it does, it’s going to be an amazing thing.”
Abbey Cornelius finished with 12 points and five rebounds for the Mocs, while Addie Porter added 10. Sigrun Olafsdottir had five rebounds and five assists.
-Compiled by Gene Henley. Contact him at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.