One could say they were surprised by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s lackluster performance in a 58-40 loss to Furman in the opening round of the Southern Conference women’s basketball tournament Thursday night.
For a team that had lacked consistency all season long, though, nothing should be all that surprising.
But disappointing? No doubt.
The third-seeded Mocs (14-10) did what they needed to do on defense to remain in their quarterfinal against the sixth-seeded Paladins (11-13) at Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville, North Carolina.
UTC forced 18 turnovers, turning those into 13 points. Furman led 22-6 early in the second quarter, but when the Paladins missed six consecutive shots on two occasions in that period, the Mocs took advantage by closing with a 7-0 run to trail by single digits going into halftime.