The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team did a lot of things right in Thursday night’s Southern Conference first-place showdown with Mercer.
However, 40 minutes of poor shooting and rebounding doomed the Mocs to a 65-58 loss in Macon, Georgia.
The Bears (12-7, 4-0) outshot the Mocs 43 percent to 35 percent and used a 50-31 rebounding edge to get off five more shots. Mercer senior Amanda Thompson had a game-high 16 rebounds, and sophomore guard Shannon Titus had a season-high 24 points.
UTC (8-11, 3-1), which had a season-low six turnovers, was led by freshman Mya Long’s 14 points, part of her team’s 39-6 bench scoring edge. Lakelyn Bouldin and Eboni Williams, the Mocs’ leading scorers this season – entering Thursday, Bouldin had averaged 12.9 points per game and Williams 8.4 – were held to a combined nine points, and the team was just 11-for-20 on free throws.
The UTC bench led a third-quarter rally that cut Mercer’s lead from 11 points to four. The final three minutes of the period were frustrating for the Mocs, who missed four free throws, had a layup and a short jump shot bounce off and committed a turnover to trail by seven entering the final quarter.