The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team couldn't seem to find its footing Thursday night, falling behind by double digits early and never fully recovering in a 64-51 loss to Wofford in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
The Mocs (10-9, 2-2 Southern Conference) visit Furman (9-10, 1-3) at 2 p.m. Saturday before playing twice at home next week, facing UNC Greensboro on Thursday and Western Carolina two days later.
Against the Terriers (13-5, 3-1), though, the Mocs never got comfortable.
They shot just 32.7% from the field, their second-worst shooting performance of the season, behind only the 30.4% in a 69-39 loss at Tennessee on Dec. 6. UTC fell behind 23-6 early in the second quarter after a 19-2 Wofford run, then used a 19-7 spurt of its own to cut the lead to five at one point in the quarter.
The Mocs still trailed by eight at halftime, a deficit that grew back to double figures in the third quarter.
"We got beat today," UTC coach Shawn Poppie said on the postgame radio broadcast. "It's been a while since we got beat; I feel like there's been some games throughout the year where we beat ourselves, but they beat us today. They did a good job of stretching us out. We executed what felt like absolutely nothing. So we get the result of that.
"We're a team that we're not good enough to just show up. We have to execute a game plan, and that was not the case today."
Freshman forward Raven Thompson led the Mocs with 16 points, adding seven rebounds. Yazz Wazeerud-Din chipped in 13 points, while Addie Porter had 10. Karsen Murphy was the only other UTC player with more than two points, as the sophomore forward hit a pair of 3s for six while playing seven minutes. The Mocs were 5-for-23 from 3-point range as a team.
Wofford was coming off a 55-51 win at UNC Greensboro and has now won four of its past five games. The Terriers had four scorers in double figures, with Jackie Carman and Lilly Hatton sharing the game high at 21 points and combining for 14 rebounds, Rachael Rose adding 11 points with seven rebounds, five assists and two steals, and Helen Matthews also scoring 11. Hatton also had four blocks.
UTC had taken a step forward with Saturday's 78-70 overtime win against visiting Mercer after struggling to consistently close out games, but the Mocs haven't put together back-to-back victories in a month.
"I would say in 17 of our 19 games, we've executed enough of a game plan to keep us in the game that day, we showed up," said Poppie, who is in his first season with the Mocs. "Tonight's what happens when the other team is better than you and you don't execute the (scouting report).
"We've got another one Saturday, so we can't feel sorry for ourselves for too long."
Compiled by Gene Henley. Contact him at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.