With the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team struggling to score and making way too many turnovers against Samford, the Mocs needed someone to step up Thursday night at McKenzie Arena.
Coach Katie Burrows looked to her Kiwi Connection, and lightly used freshman Pare Pene - a native of Rotorua, New Zealand - calmed the Mocs to set up a 61-56 Southern Conference win that snapped a three-game losing streak.
"Coming in having not played that many minutes in her college career, she plays almost 15 minutes and was just solid," Burrows said. "I'm super proud of her, and I know her teammates were excited for her.
"And I'm glad to see that because it gives me a little more depth."
The Mocs (12-14, 7-4) trailed 20-11 with 6:49 remaining in the first half when Pene entered the game. UTC had committed nine turnovers in the first seven-plus minutes of the game and needed a spark.
Pene, a 5-foot-7 point guard, had played in only eight UTC games before Thursday, most recently in a Jan. 31 win against Western Carolina. But her presence and ball-handling seemed to settle the Mocs, and they ended the half on a 13-5 run to trail 25-24 at the break.
"I did think that I was going to get in this game because the assistant coaches were telling me to be ready," Pene said. "So that's what I was just focusing on during warmups.
"I was just trying to be confident in myself and my skills. I was trying to get my teammates in position and put pressure on the ball."
UTC surged into the second half with a 14-0 run, starting with a basket by junior Lakelyn Bouldin that gave the Mocs the lead for good. Arianne Whitaker scored six points in the run to help UTC take control and build a 43-41 lead through three quarters.
"We made some adjustments coming out of halftime," Bouldin said "We definitely got burned on some backdoor cuts in the first half, so we really tightened up on defense.
"Just tightening up up on defense, slowing down on offense and not forcing silly turnovers was really the key."
Bouldin, Whitaker and Eboni Williams led the Mocs with 12 points each, and Morgan Hill added 10 points, including going 5-of-6 on free throws.
Samford (9-17, 4-7), which was coming off back-to-back home wins, was led by Ta'Naisha Hill's 19 points. Natalie Armstrong added 13 points and Katie Allen 12 for the Bulldogs, who lost 73-63 to UTC on Jan. 26 in Birmingham, Alabama.
On Thursday, the Mocs made 15 of 17 free throws and outrebounded the Bulldogs 35-20, but they committed 21 turnovers - including six by freshman Eboni Williams before she fouled out late in the game - and will need to take better care of the ball in ther home finale against league-leading Mercer (19-7, 11-0). The Bears won 83-77 in overtime Thursday at East Tennessee State.
"Twenty-one turnovers is horribly unacceptable against a team that's not pressing us," Burrows said. "We will have to clean that up tomorrow for Saturday. That's probably the only negative I'll talk about. We held them to 56 points, our defense really tightened up, even in the first half despite giving up some backdoor cuts."
In the fourth quarter, Pene made sure her impact was felt in the scorebook by hitting a 3-pointer from the left corner to put UTC up 51-37 while drawing cheers from teammates and coaches and a big grin from Burrows.
"It was fun getting in there and not just watching from the bench," said Pene, who was also credited with an assist in the game. "But I've picked up a lot of things, like you really have to be focused on being always ready and be engaged in the game on offense and defense."
Samford made things interesting in the fourth quarter with a 17-8 run to cut UTC's lead to 59-56 on a 3-pointer by Armstrong with 1:01 remaining in the game, and the Bulldogs had a chance to tie with a 3-pointer after a miss by UTC's Brooke Burns with 22 seconds remaining.
An out-of-bounds pass gave the ball back to UTC, though, and Bouldin hit two free throws to get her team a big win late in the season.
"We definitely needed this win in a lot of ways coming off a little losing streak," Bouldin said. "That's not us; that's not what we're used to. So just getting back to the winning ways of Chattanooga basketball was important."
Contact Jim Tanner at JFTanner@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @JFTanner.