The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team missed out on a chance to win the Southern Conference regular-season title outright Thursday, when the Mocs lost 77-70 at Samford.
The Mocs (18-8, 10-3) never led in the early evening matchup at the Pete Hanna Center in Birmingham, Alabama, trailing by as many as 18 points as the Bulldogs (13-17, 6-7) knocked down 10 3-pointers compared to just four for UTC, with three coming from freshman wing London Weaver, who made all of those in the second half.
Caia Elisaldez led the Mocs with a game-high 24 points, and the junior point guard flirted with a triple-double as she also handed out nine assists and grabbed seven rebounds. Sophomore forward Gianna Corbitt added 23 points, eight rebounds, four steals and a pair of blocks.
Weaver, who shot 4-for-6 (with all but one of those attempts from outside the arc), finished with 11 points for her season high.
The Mocs missed out on a chance to sweep the regular-season series against Samford, which lost 61-40 to UTC on Feb. 1 at McKenzie Arena. That was the 11th of what turned out to be 12 consecutive wins for the Mocs, who have gone 2-3 since the streak — and one of those victories was last Saturday’s 56-54 result against UNC Greensboro that required an eight-point comeback in the fourth quarter at home.
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“We were very undisciplined today to start the game,” Mocs second-year head coach Deandra Schirmer said in a UTC release. “We let them get hot in their home gym, and a talented offensive team like Samford, you can’t let them get going like that. I was proud of how we fought back after being down 18 points in the third to cut the lead to four.
“This has to be a lesson to us on how we need to come out in games. The last couple of games we have been flat, and it’s unacceptable.”
UTC was 4-for-13 from 3-point range in the second half after missing all eight of its attempts before the break. Those makes allowed the Mocs to cut into their big deficit, with UTC outscoring the Bulldogs 14-6 to start the fourth quarter and pulling within 68-64 with 1:11 remaining after a 3-pointer by Weaver and a jumper by Elisaldez.
The Mocs were 8-for-11 from the foul line, while the Bulldogs made 19 of their 26 free throws, sinking nine of their last 12 in the final minute after UTC got within four points.
Samford’s scoring was led by Sierra Godbolt (18 points with five assists), Briana Rivera (16 points with four 3-pointers) and Emily Bowman (14 points with nine rebounds). Samford freshman guard Avary Brewer, a former Bradley Central standout, hit a 3 for her only points in the contest.
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UTC and Wofford (16-11, 10-3), which split their regular-season series, are now tied for first in the eight-team league standings heading into Saturday’s final day of action before the SoCon tournament tips off next Thursday in Asheville, North Carolina.
The Mocs will visit Mercer (16-12, 6-7), which is tied with Samford for fifth, for a 2 p.m. tipoff in Macon, Georgia. UTC beat the Bears 72-59 on Jan. 30 in Chattanooga.
If the Mocs and Wofford finish tied, UTC would secure the tournament’s top seed based off its season sweep of Furman (16-12, 9-4), which is one game behind third-place East Tennessee State (16-12, 9-4). Wofford plays at Furman on Saturday, but the visiting Terriers can secure only a split of the regular-season series with the Paladins, who won the first meeting 65-64 on Jan. 30.
UNCG (13-15, 3-10) is locked into seventh and Western Carolina (3-24, 0-13) into eighth for next week’s bracket.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.