Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / UTC head coach Katie Burrows direct the Mocs. The UTC Mocs hosted the Georgia State Panthers in Women’s Basketball, at McKenzie Arena, on November 27, 2021.The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team dropped a 91-61 decision Tuesday at Vanderbilt to fall to 1-7 on the season.
The Mocs saw the Commodores (5-4) jump out to a 14-3 lead and were never able to get any closer than seven. Destiny McClendon scored eight points in the second half and finished with a team-high 11 for the game, making a pair of 3-pointers. Sigrun Olafsdottir was limited to 18 minutes due to foul trouble, but had 10 points. Abbey Cornelius chipped in nine points and nine rebounds.
“You go on the road to a (Southeastern Conference) school, a super physical conference. These kids are taught to play physical and we did not match that physicality in the first half,” UTC head coach Katie Burrows said on the postgame radio broadcast. “I told them coming out in the second half that we have to battle, and I felt that they did a really good job of battling in the second half.”
Turnovers were yet again an issue for UTC, which finished the game with 23 that turned into 38 Vanderbilt points. It’s the fourth time this season the Mocs finished with at least 20 turnovers. The Commodores also had 19 second-chance points, 25 fast-break points and 30 points in the paint against the smaller Mocs.
UTC did make eight 3-pointers at a 36% rate, which is the second-best shooting performance of the season from the Mocs, who made 10 3s at a 44% clip in last week’s 75-68 loss at Kennesaw State.
The schedule doesn’t get any easier as the Mocs return home to face Alabama Sunday at 2.
“One of these days it’s going to click,” Burrows said. “We did a much better job of handling the ball in the second half, so maybe that’s something we can carry over into the next one, because it’ll be an even tougher challenge.”
– Compiled by Gene Henley