Wofford and Furman gave the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team tough contests in their first meetings.
The Mocs are prepared this time around.
UTC (14-7, 5-2) will start its final stretch of Southern Conference games at home today, hosting Furman at 5:30 p.m. at McKenzie Arena in the first game of a doubleheader. The UTC men (19-3, 8-1) will face Wofford afterward.
UTC will host another doubleheader Saturday, swapping opposing schools.
“There are a lot of teams that feel they have a chance to win three games in March in this league,” UTC women’s coach Jim Foster said. “There are teams that want to salvage their season and get a couple of solid wins down the stretch, so everybody’s going to be ready.
“We don’t change our focus. It’s about us, and how we get ready for each game.”
Foster’s Mocs built an 11-point fourth-quarter lead at Furman on Jan. 9, but the Paladins rallied, trimming the deficit to three points late before UTC held on for a 56-50 win. It was part of the Mocs’ 4-0 start in league play, but they dropped two straight on the road before ending a three-game road swing with a win over East Tennessee State last Saturday.
“We’re just doing what we normally do – figuring out ways to win and doing what we need to do to win,” senior guard Alicia Payne said. “We have to play two tough teams in a row, but we’re going to go out, do the same thing we do and try to win.”
The Mocs used a week off to add a number of wrinkles to both their offense and defense, which paid off against the Bucs. They didn’t change at all from their usual approach, however. Not deviating from what they typically do led to a more relaxed team against ETSU, and that was the difference in getting a big road win.
“We played as a team up there,” junior center Jasmine Joyner said. “We had some hard practices for that game, and we’ll continue to have hard practices to get ready for the second round of the conference season. It’s fun to be at home and for our fans to come see us play.
“We’re more comfortable here, so it’s real good to be at home.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.