The final stretch of Thursday night’s Southern Conference women’s basketball game at McKenzie Arena didn’t deliver the result the home team wanted.
It did bring University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach Katie Burrows some optimism about what’s ahead for her Mocs despite a third consecutive loss, this time a 59-53 defeat at the hands of reigning league champion Mercer as the Bears completed a sweep of the regular-season series.
The Mocs (6-17, 4-4) fell behind by as much as 13 points in the contest, but they closed to within 54-51 on a steal and layup by Dena Jarrells with 4:07 remaining. The teams traded missed shots and turnovers until the Bears (14-6, 7-1) turned to leading scorer Amoria Neal-Tysor, who scored to stretch the lead to five with 2:12 to play.
“I’m looking at the stat sheet, and I’m just seeing a lot of things that we did really, really well today to build off of,” Burrows said. “We limited them to one opportunity. They shot it well, so that helped their case, obviously, and we still did a great job of limiting them to one possession.
“We just couldn’t knock down shots and hit free throws when they counted.”
Neal-Tysor led all scorers with 25 points and eight rebounds, and Erin Houpt added 12 points for the Bears, who shot 23-of-55 (41.8%) from the field, making five 3-pointers on eight attempts.
Jarrells led the Mocs with 11 points, while Brooke Hampel finished with 10. Karsen Murphy had nine points, seven rebounds and two blocks, while Addie Porter scored eight. Sigrun Olafsdottir had a team-high nine rebounds.
The Mocs played without the services of leading scorer and rebounder Abbey Cornelius. UTC said the fourth-year standout missed the game with a “lower-extremity injury” and will be evaluated again in a couple of weeks. Cornelius also missed the first meeting with Mercer, a 69-52 loss on Jan. 8 in Macon, Georgia.
“It’s horrible. Nobody wants to see it; her teammates didn’t want to see it,” Burrows said. “She was so bummed, but her teammates rallied around her and played their guts out.”
The Mocs will host Samford (8-13, 3-4) at 3 p.m. Saturday, with that matchup following the UTC men’s noon game against Mercer at McKenzie.
Compiled by Gene Henley. Contact him at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.