UTC’s Whitney Hood drives to the basket past Daniella Motley of Wofford on Sunday afternoon. Hood scored a career-high 40 points as the Lady Mocs defeated Wofford by a score of 93-88 at the McKenzie Arena.Whitney Hood didn’t have much left in the tank when she walked off the court at McKenzie Arena on Sunday. The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga forward had the strength to smile, however, and for good reason.
Hood scored a career-high 40 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead the Lady Mocs to a 93-88 come-from-behind win over Wofford.
The 6-foot-2 junior played 38 minutes, including the entire second half, and attempted a school-record 32 shots. She finished 15-of-32 from the field and 10-of-13 from the line.
“I’m tired. I am, physically and mentally,” Hood said.
The Lady Mocs trailed by 18 points in the first half and by as many as 14 in the second before rallying in the final 16 minutes for a critical Southern Conference win. UTC (5-8, 2-2 SoCon) has now won 26 straight against Wofford (5-6, 1-2), but this was the closest game in the streak.
“Obviously we dug a big hole, and it would have been real easy for our kids to hang their heads and throw in the towel,” UTC coach Wes Moore said. “They kept battling and it seemed like forever before we finally took the lead.”
Nine of Hood’s 12 rebounds came at the offensive end, including two back to back at a critical point with less than two minutes remaining. With UTC down 85-83, Hood twice rebounded her own miss before scoring and drawing a foul. She hit the free throw to convert the three-point play and give the Lady Mocs an 86-85 lead with 1:35 to play.
“I think I wanted it more than anybody,” she said. “I just kept going after my rebounds, and I just put it up and got fouled.”
Hood grabbed a defensive rebound after a Wofford miss on the ensuing possession and Kylie Lambert hit a tough pull-up 15-footer in transition to push the lead to 88-85.
“[Coach Moore] was telling me someone was behind me, so I just stopped and shot it,” said Lambert, who finished with 13 points and seven rebounds.
The shot wasn’t what Moore had in mind.
“That’s one of those as a coach you’re saying ‘No. No. No. Great shot,'” he said.
The Terriers hit 9 of 11 3s, shot 67.7 percent from the field and could easily have been up by 20 at the half. However, UTC managed to hang around and Tenisha Townsend’s 3 at the buzzer cut the deficit to 11, 52-41.
The Terriers led 66-52 with 15:54 to play when UTC went on an 22-7 run during the next eight minutes. Lambert hit a jumper to give UTC its first lead, 74-73, but April Moorhouse, who led the Terriers with 17 points, then banked in a 3 to put Wofford back in front.
Lambert answered that with a 3 and the teams went back and forth until Hood’s three-point play gave UTC the lead for good.
Kayla Christopher and Townsend scored 16 each for UTC, which had 25 offensive rebounds and outscored Wofford 36-7 on second-chance points.
The Lady Mocs host Furman on Tuesday.
Contact John Frierson at jfrierson@timesfreepress.com or (423) 757-6268. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/mocsbeatCTFP.