As University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball players gathered at McKenzie Arena for Wednesday afternoon's practice session, December must have felt like a lifetime ago.
It had been 32 days since the Mocs defeated Maine to end an eight-game losing streak. A team consisting of a first-year head coach, just two seniors, three juniors and nine underclassmen headed home a bit lost and most definitely frustrated as the start of Southern Conference play loomed.
"It was hard to find the good side and realize that we could actually be good if we played together as a team," sophomore forward Bria Dial. "When we play for the individual, we are not very good. Once we got home, we got it together. We just clicked."
What followed were two weeks of hard practices centered on eliminating mistakes. Since then UTC has gone 4-1, all SoCon games, and re-established itself as one of the teams to beat at the league tournament in March.
First-year coach Katie Burrows' team began the turnaround by realizing its nonconference schedule - rated the sixth-toughest in the nation at the time - had been one long training session. There were bumps and bruises and shaken confidences, but the adversity wasn't without its benefits.
"We had competed in all those games, though the results weren't what we wanted," senior forward Shelbie Davenport said. "We had to realize those teams we were playing weren't SoCon teams, and if we could compete with those teams there was no reason we couldn't come in and dominate the SoCon."
The Mocs opened league play with home wins over East Tennessee State, Wofford and Furman, but fell into old bad habits in a loss at Mercer last Thursday. Things got worse two days later in a pivotal road game at Samford, where the Mocs found themselves down seven points entering the final quarter.
What followed were eight minutes of near perfection. While steady junior Lakelyn Bouldin, UTC's leading scorer this season, was having another strong game, it was the play of freshmen Abbey Cornelius and Eboni Williams that helped turn the game into a 10-point win for UTC.
Cornelius, who had played sparingly, scored 10 of her career-high 14 points in the quarter and finished 7-of-7 from the field. Williams and Cornelius combined to dominate defensively during the period, helping force the Bulldogs into a woeful 2-of-13 shooting effort.
"It was interesting. I made two substitutions in the second half and they were both freshmen, Eboni and Abbey," Burrows said. "For Abbey to go 7-for-7 and for Eboni to provide us with rebounds and a pair of assists, they gave us an opportunity to spread them out. And defensively, we were just getting our hands on everything.
"We struggled at Mercer, and it was interesting that we were down seven at the half of both games. In the second half of the Samford game, we could have just as easily folded. The girls, I think, just decided to get up, strap on the big-girl pants and get after it. It hurt them to lose to Mercer."
The Mocs (9-11 overall), will look to add another league win today as Western Carolina (4-16, 0-5) visits for a 5:30 p.m. matchup at McKenzie Arena.
Burrows now has 11 players she can use to match up against teams or to come in and provide a spark. Four of them are sophomores and three are freshmen. For a veteran such as Davenport, the progression of the young players has changed the team completely.
"We have a lot of trust in each other now," she said. "I mean, we had a freshman came in and go 7-for-7 who hadn't played much. We realize everyone on this team can play, and when you are called on, we all trust that person can step up and get it done.
"Our freshmen aren't freshmen. They don't play like freshmen. And our sophomores don't play like sophomores, either. We have some great ballplayers and we have a great mindset with this team. We are young, but we don't play young - that's the biggest thing."
Burrows agreed and said a big factor in being able to use such a deep rotation is the team's unselfishness.
"The unfortunate thing is you can't play everyone equal minutes, so you have to ride whoever is hot," she said. "Overall, I'm just happy to see their overall progress and looking forward to their future and how they develop.
"They're good now, but by the time they are juniors and seniors they will be scary good."
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.