The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team hadn’t played in a week before taking the court Saturday afternoon at McKenzie Arena, with the visit from East Tennessee State University representing not only a chance to close out a 3-0 homestand but hold steady as one of top teams in the Southern Conference standings.
Point guard Caia Elisaldez helped make sure the Mocs didn’t get all dressed up for nothing.
The 5-foot-5 sophomore scored a team-high 17 points, capped by her go-ahead basket on a driving layup with 24.8 seconds to play after the Mocs’ 14-point third-quarter lead had evaporated and the Buccaneers had pulled even with 32 seconds to go. The Mocs then withstood a missed 3-pointer and a missed layup in ETSU’s final two possessions — plus three missed free throws by UTC players — to hold on for the 48-46 win.
The Mocs improved to 9-9 overall — getting back to .500 for the first time since they were 4-4 at the end November — and 4-1 in the Southern Conference while dropping their in-state league rivals to 11-9, 2-3. UTC has won 11 of the past 12 series meetings, including six in a row.
“What was going through my head was, ‘We’re not losing,'” Elisaldez said of her thoughts on the final basket. “We didn’t wake up this morning, we didn’t prep all week — we didn’t have a whole five days of practice, four days, whatever we had — for us to come out here on our home court and lose.