The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team used a 10-0 run in the second quarter to assume control of Thursday night's game against Samford and cruised — sort of — to a 55-39 win over the Bulldogs at the Pete Hanna Center in Birmingham, Alabama.
The Mocs (20-3, 8-0 Southern Conference) led by as many as 21 points in the final quarter, and although Samford got no closer than 13, the final stretch wasn't something UTC coach Shawn Poppie was overly excited about.
"We've just got to finish better," he said on the postgame radio broadcast. "We've been on them about killer instinct. When you've got them down, you've got to keep pushing, and we have a tendency to let off the gas a little bit.
"But at the end of the day, I'm pretty proud of our effort."
The Mocs stretched their streak of victories to nine, and the latest was sealed largely on the defensive end.
UTC limited the Bulldogs (11-12, 3-5) to 23% shooting from the field for the game, and even that number was propped up by a fourth quarter in which Samford was 6-for-16 after the Mocs limited the home team to just 16% shooting in the first three quarters.
UTC dominated the paint with a 36-16 scoring edge there, even on a night when the Mocs shot just 42% from the field and struggled up close, going 14-of-31 on attempted layups. UTC's usual suspects had solid performances, with Jada Guinn and Raven Thompson scoring 12 points each to lead the way. Thompson added 11 rebounds, while Guinn and Addie Porter had eight each.
Fellow UTC starter Karsen Murphy made all three of her shots — including a left-hander off the glass to beat the shot clock — and had eight points in 20 minutes.
Samford's lone player in double figures for points was Kennedy Langham with 12, but Emily Bowman grabbed 15 rebounds. Bowman also had three blocks, as did Carly Heidger, who scored eight points.
"For the most part, that was a good win," Poppie said. "We've just got to find a way to keep pushing this thing forward, but if that's our biggest thing that we can gripe about, then I think we've got OK problems."
The Mocs play the second leg of a three-game road swing when they face Mercer (10-14, 4-4) at 2 p.m. Saturday in Macon, Georgia. The Bears were also winners Thursday night, 65-57 against East Tennessee State.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.