There is a chance the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women will play at least one more basketball game this season, but it won’t be in the Southern Conference tournament.
The Mocs, seeded second after sharing the conference’s regular-season title, were upset 63-55 by No. 7 seed Mercer in the opening round Thursday at Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville, North Carolina. A cold second quarter and a combined 42 points from the Bears’ Amoria Neal-Tysor and Jaron Dougherty put UTC’s hopes for another SoCon title – and the automatic NCAA tournament berth that comes with the league tourney crown – on ice.
“Not the ending we were hoping for under such a crazy turnaround in our season,” UTC coach Katie Burrows told the media afterward.
It may not, however, be the ending after all for the team that started this season 1-13 before finding its form in league play to win its 22nd SoCon regular-season title.
If top-seeded Samford wins the SoCon tournament, the Mocs would receive a bid in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament. Samford defeated No. 8 seed Western Carolina 77-62 on Thursday and advanced to a Friday semifinal against fourth-seeded Furman, which won 68-54 in its tourney opener against No. 5 Wofford.