ASHEVILLE, N.C. – For her first game in a Southern Conference tournament, Queen Alford performed pretty well Thursday.
The 5-foot-10 junior guard had a game-high 20 points for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team, helping the Mocs cruise into the semifinals with a 74-56 win at the U.S. Cellular Center.
It was her fifth 20-point game of the season and a solid response to a two-point performance against East Tennessee State in the regular-season finale.
“I thought I played pretty good,” she said. “There’s always room for improvement, but it was very, very fun.”
Alford is the only player in UTC’s primary seven-player rotation who had not played in the SoCon tournament prior to Thursday, but as usual she seemed at ease on the big stage, hitting half of her 12 shots and all six of her free throws.
She had 13 points in the first half, helping the Mocs build a 37-23 lead at the break. She then scored seven in the third quarter, which could have been nine had she not been called for a travel while performing a Eurostep move.
“She’s got that Eurostep as something that is effective and it works,” UTC coach Jim Foster said. “It looks like she covers too much ground, but if you know how to do it – because a guy from Golden State (Stephen Curry) knows how to do it pretty good.
“Not that I’m in any way suggesting that Queen be mentioned in the same paragraph (as Curry).”
Notable points
The 29 points the Mocs scored in the third quarter are a season high. They’ve averaged 65.6 points during their recent nine-game winning streak after averaging 54.7 in the first 20. Alicia Payne’s 15 points were one point off her career high scored against Western Carolina on Jan. 13. Jasmine Joyner had a season-high three steals to go along with her three blocks, which give her a nation-leading 117 this season. Ashlyn Wert scored her second field goal of the season on a short jumper in the lane in the final minute.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.