The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team is on the road this weekend for what is annually one of its tougher Southern Conference trips.
The Lady Mocs play at the College of Charleston tonight and will face Georgia Southern on Saturday. UTC (3-5, 1-0 SoCon) opened league play earlier this month with an 87-80 win over the Eagles at McKenzie Arena.
“They’re tough teams, very competitive, and they never give up,” UTC point guard Tenisha Townsend said. “They’re tough and this is going to be a good road trip for us.”
The Lady Mocs are coming off a 79-64 home loss to No. 13 Kentucky last Saturday. After trailing by eight points at halftime, UTC started the second half strong and held the lead twice before the Wildcats pulled away in the final 10 minutes.
It was UTC’s third loss to a ranked (at the time) Southeastern Conference team. The Lady Mocs were blown out at No. 6 Tennessee and lost by 10 at Georgia, which has since dropped out of The Associated Press top 25.
“I think those games are really going to help us now that we’re getting into our conference schedule,” guard Kayla Christopher said.
Like UTC, Charleston has a lot of new faces this season. The Cougars are playing four freshmen at least 14 minutes a game and two will likely start against the Lady Mocs.
Senior point guard Tonia Gerty is the Cougars’ leading scorer at 11.4 points per game.
“They’re replacing a lot of kids, so they’re young in a lot of places,” UTC coach Wes Moore said. “They still have [Gerty] who is super-quick on defense and is always looking to make a play.”
After the SoCon road trip, the Lady Mocs play at Kennesaw State on Tuesday. The Owls are 2-4 with three of the losses coming against Miami, Georgia Tech and Clemson. UTC beat the Owls last season in the Chattanooga Classic.
“It’s another questionable scheduling job by me,” Moore joked.
After Christmas, the Lady Mocs return to the road for a Dec. 30 game at Belmont before finally coming back to the Roundhouse for a Jan. 2 game against Wofford.
Contact John Frierson at jfrierson@timesfreepress.com or (423) 757-6268. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/mocsbeatCTFP.