The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team claimed the No. 25 spot in The Associated Press rankings by using lock-down defense to cause opposing teams to miss shots and make mistakes.
Monday night the Mocs relied on that same formula to win their first game as a ranked team in more than 30 years, grinding out an ugly 49-32 Southern Conference win over Samford in front of 1,669 fans at McKenzie Arena.
UTC (18-3, 6-0) shot 30 percent from the field in the second half and scored just 16 points, but strong defensive pressure held the Bulldogs to 12 points in the final 20 minutes on 4-of-16 field-goal shooting, as a 33-20 halftime lead held up.
“Coach (Jim Foster) told us yesterday in practice that all of the games are not going to be pretty,” junior guard Alicia “Red” Payne said after the game. “We’re not always going to knock down shots or shoot a high percentage from 3 or even from the field.
“But the one thing we can control is our defense. In every single game we can play the best defense we can, so we just had to rely on that tonight.”