Where scoring is concerned, Caia Elisaldez did more than she ever has to help the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga win a basketball game in Saturday’s 68-60 victory against Furman.
The sophomore point guard was more impressed by what the Mocs accomplished as a team to hang on for the win and maintain their position near the top of the Southern Conference standings.
Led by a career-high 24 points from Elisaldez, who had totaled more than 20 in a game just twice during her time at UTC, the Mocs used a dominant second quarter to build their advantage before holding off the Paladins and completing a 1-1 road trip in South Carolina. Two days after flirting with an upset of SoCon leader Wofford in Spartanburg but falling short, the Mocs (10-10, 5-2) finished the job against the Paladins (12-11, 2-5) in a game played at North Greenville University’s Hayes Gymnasium in Tigerville because Furman’s Timmons Arena in Greenville is being renovated.
Elisaldez, whose previous career high had been 21 points twice (in Thursday’s 57-54 loss at Wofford and in a 67-56 win at Western Carolina on Jan. 9), also handed out five assists. She and UTC senior guard Sigrun Olafsdottir, who had 11 points (she was 6-for-6 on free throws) and five steals, played all 40 minutes as the Mocs extended their streak of wins against Furman to six and their lead in the all-time series to 62-31.
“We’ve got a team full of dogs, and I think everyone had to pull it out,” said Elisaldez, who shot 8-for-16 from the field and made all but one of her nine free throws to help UTC go 17-for-20 at the foul line. “Everyone had to work hard today, and no matter how many minutes you played, no matter how much you scored, everyone contributed to this and we gave our all on that court, and that’s exactly why we came up the way we did.”