Maybe the biggest disappointment from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s 58-50 home loss to UNC Greensboro on Sunday is that when the visitors punched early, the Mocs never really did a good job of punching back.
The physical team won the battle of Southern Conference basketball programs at McKenzie Arena, with the Spartans coming out on top in every category predicated on hustle and physicality.
Free throws? UNCG shot 13 more (25-12), including 21 in the second half when the Spartans relentlessly attacked the basket. Missed shots? No problem for the visitors, who grabbed nine offensive rebounds in the second half and 16 in all.
Calling the Spartans a bad shooting team may be putting things too lightly (they shot 29% in their 57-41 loss Friday night at McKenzie), but with enough opportunities, anyone can find the basket, which they did this time. And the one true shooter the Spartans do have, senior forward Pernilla Sorensen, was 5-for-5 from 3-point range and finished with 17 points.
What UNCG (7-15, 5-8) does extremely well is defend, and it uses physicality and size to do it. The Mocs (13-9, 8-5) shot just 31% from the field Sunday, and they didn’t execute anywhere except the foul line, where they made 11 of 12 free throws. A 3-for-20 performance from 3-point range obviously isn’t going to win many games.
“You can’t shoot the ball poorly, give them extra opportunities and keep putting them at the line,” UTC coach Katie Burrows said. “Their foul shooting percentage was not very good, but you give them that many opportunities, it’s going to bite you in the butt.”
Still, the schedule format the SoCon adopted for women’s basketball this season amid the COVID-19 pandemic – of a team’s seven two-game conference series, all but one of those were played in three days at the same site – is over for UTC.
“Thank goodness,” junior forward Abbey Cornelius said after Sunday’s game.
The Mocs had only one sweep in the format, of Western Carolina last week, but the Mocs have beaten every league team at least once this year and have one regular-season conference game remaining, 7 p.m. Thursday at East Tennessee State, that offers the chance of a sweep in their lone traditional home-and-home set. The Buccaneers (3-12, 1-7), who play at Western Carolina on Tuesday, lost 66-51 at UTC on Jan. 9.
UNCG’s Jaylynn Brown led all scorers with 22 points, and Khalis Cain’s 13 rebounds were also a game high.
Cornelius with 17 points and Brooke Hampel with 11 were the only Mocs who scored in double figures.
Mocs star
Aside from 19 seconds in the second quarter, Cornelius played the entire game. Her stats show that, as the 6-foot-2 junior forward finished with 16 rebounds and three assists in addition to her points, recording her second straight double-double and fifth overall this season.
Key stats
UTC senior Bria Dial – the team’s second-leading scorer this season at 12.2 points per game – was 0-for-10 from the field in what could be her final home game, including missing all six of her 3-point tries.
Turning point
Despite UTC’s struggles, the score was tied with 6:59 remaining after an Eboni Williams transition layup pulled the Mocs even at 43. But Sorensen got hot, scoring 11 straight points on a trio of 3-pointers and a short jumper, to break the game open.
Quotable
“It really knocks you when you play 25-30 seconds of really hard defense and they get the rebound, whether it’s straight to them or it gets knocked around.” – Cornelius on the team’s struggles securing defensive rebounds Sunday
“She’ll have a chip on her shoulder moving forward. I can tell you that; she takes those things to heart, so I think you can expect something different from her on Thursday.” – Burrows on Dial after she was held scoreless for the second time this season
Final thought
Disappointing? Maybe. But surprising? No. The Mocs have struggled to put two good games together in the same series this season, and they never really adjusted to the physical style of play. They’ll get one more chance Thursday to build on the record and solidify a top-three seed in the conference tournament (March 4-7 in Asheville, North Carolina), but that would have been a lot easier had they won Sunday.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.