The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team was unable to recover from a slow start and lost 68-55 Tuesday night to Florida Gulf Coast in Fort Myers.
UTC (5-7), which played its first game in 15 days, will be home to face second-ranked Notre Dame next Tuesday.
Queen Alford led the Mocs with 16 points. Jasmine Joyner had 15 points, 10 rebounds and six blocked shots, moving into 25th all-time in NCAA Division I with 362 blocks in her career.
Lakelyn Bouldin scored 10 points and Keiana Gilbert had a team-high five assists, but the Mocs committed 20 turnovers, which led to 21 Eagles points.
Rosemarie Julien and Jessica Cattani scored 15 points each to lead FGCU, which was 12-for-15 from the field in the first quarter, including a stretch of making eight shots in a row.
The Eagles led 30-12 lead after that period, with seven assists on their made field goals, 4-for-4 success from 3-point range and a 9-1 rebounding edge while also forcing five UTC turnovers.
UTC trailed by as many as 25 in the second quarter. The Mocs outscored the Eagles 33-23 in the second half, but that was after scoring the final 10 points of the game.