The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team had a poor first half before turning it on late and defeating Bellarmine 78-73 to improve to 5-5 on the season.
The Mocs got a dominant effort from sophomore forward Gianna Corbitt, who had 30 points and five rebounds and was 5-for-7 from 3-point range. Caia Elisaldez had her struggles (eight turnovers), but added 15 points and 11 assists, while Sarah Owona and Izzy McPherson had three 3-pointers each and finished with nine points.
The Mocs are at Tennessee State on Dec. 11.
Here are three reasons for the win.
Gianna Corbitt: It should go without saying that Corbitt dominated in the second half, scoring 23 of her career-high point total on 7-for-9 shooting and 4-4 from 3. It’s her second consecutive solid effort against the Knights, as the 6-foot forward had 16 points and 10 rebounds in last season’s meeting, which the Mocs lost 67-66 in Louisville.
Second-half effort: Sometimes, it’s your day. And sometimes it’s your half, and it was in the first half for the Knights, who entered Sunday’s game making less than 30% of their 3-point attempts but were 8-for-14 in the first 20 minutes, which helped them build a 33-23 advantage. It was the Mocs who figured things out in the final 20 minutes, shooting 73% from the field (83% in the fourth quarter alone).
Finishing the drill: The thing about last season’s loss to the Knights was how close it was to not happening. UTC led 66-61 a season ago with eight seconds to play, only to see the Knights drill a 3-pointer, force a turnover then hit another 3 to pull out the win. The Mocs led Sunday’s game by two with 42 seconds to play, but executed with six points by Corbitt in the final 39 seconds to put the game away. Plus this time it was UTC that forced the turnover in the key spot, with Bellarmine throwing the ball away with six seconds to play down four.
Corbitt, strong second half propel UTC to win over Knights
Quotable: “I think one thing that these two players have seen last season and now this season, every single game except for two blowouts have been close games. They’ve learned how to develop in the fire and we’ve been in those situations and we’ve come out on the other end and we trust in our execution.” — UTC head coach Deandra Schirmer
“I was going to do what it took for us to win, and I think G (Corbitt) and I have talked about that so many times. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who scores what, it’s the fact that we all come out with the win and that’s all that mattered.” — Elisaldez
“I feel like it took us until the third quarter to really respond and we can’t have that. We’ve got to understand that every team we’re playing is talented and is a team that’s capable and for us to get a little bit frustrated can’t happen. I’m proud of how they responded. The one thing I want this group to know is we’re still figuring it out. It’s a group project and we’re nowhere near finished and our rough draft probably got a D, C-minus maybe, and we’re trying to get an A to finish out the semester. So we’re still working on it together and I think if we stay together we can do some special things.” — Schirmer
“We don’t get discouraged. We’ve been down way more than 10 in some of these games. Whether we come back or not, we know that we’re capable of coming back. It’s sitting down on defense, getting the rebound, ending the possession and getting out and going and getting into our offense. When we play as a team, we’re capable of beating anybody.” — Corbitt
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.