Although the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team fought for four quarters in Thursday’s home game against UNC Greensboro, the Mocs’ fate was pretty much sealed in the first one.
It was in that first 10 minutes of game clock when the Mocs missed 11 of their 13 shots and committed eight turnovers, allowing the Spartans to jump out to a 14-4 advantage. Defense kept UTC in the game, but the uphill climb was too much for the Mocs as UNCG never trailed in a 58-50 win at McKenzie Arena.
The win allowed the Spartans to complete a sweep of the regular-season series with the Mocs while improving to 16-6 overall and 7-1 in the Southern Conference, where they sit atop the standings. The Spartans have played one more conference game to date than second-place Wofford (14-6, 6-1) — which won handily, 62-39, when UNCG visited on Jan. 16 and will have a road rematch with the Spartans on Feb. 15.
UTC (10-11, 5-3) is tied for third in the standings with East Tennessee State (14-9, 5-3) — which beat Western Carolina 77-64 in Thursday night’s only other SoCon matchup — but the Mocs won the season’s first meeting with the Buccaneers, 48-46, and still have the second in Johnson City to go.
UNCG beat the Mocs 62-48 on Jan. 11 in Greensboro, and Thursday’s rematch was similar as the Spartans starting better than UTC made a big difference.
The Mocs shot better in the second half (13-for-28, outscoring UNCG 38-37), but never got closer than seven on a number of occasions, the last time on a layup by sophomore point guard Caia Elisaldez with 16 seconds to play.
Elisaldez finished with 20 points and four assists, while teammate Gianna Corbitt finished one rebound shy of a double-double with nine to go with her 11 points. Sigrun Olafsdottir had eight rebounds for the Mocs as they finished with a 38-32 advantage on the glass, but the team’s 3-for-18 showing from 3-point range had them well of their pace of 6.5 triples per game.
UNCG knocked down seven 3-pointers and was 17-for-23 at the foul line. Jayde Gamble led the Spartans with 15 points, Makiah Asidanya added 13, and Khalis Cain grabbed nine rebounds and blocked four shots.
“It’s frustrating because the first time we played them, we lost the game in the first quarter, and we did the same this game,” UTC first-year head coach Deandra Schirmer said. “We talked a lot about prepping for this game and coming out confident, and I feel like we get a little bit stunned when we’re not hitting shots. We haven’t been hitting shots all year, so our defense has got to hold, and I feel like there was a lot of breakdowns defensively that can’t be there.
“Obviously we went to Caia in the second half, and she was fantastic for us, but we’ve got to find other avenues to score the basketball when they’re playing like that. I felt like tonight’s a really tough loss because we understand where we’re at in position in conference, and we’ve got to get the ones at home and we’ve got a really big game coming up against Western (Carolina) on Saturday and that’s a must-win.”
The Mocs face the Catamounts (11-12, 1-7) at 2 p.m. in the first game of a doubleheader at McKenzie Arena, with the UTC men hosting Furman at 4:30. The UTC women will be going for a regular-season series sweep, having beaten Western Carolina 67-56 on the road Jan. 9.
Compiled by Gene Henley. Contact him at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.