For those who weren't watching the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team lose 80-78 to Vanderbilt on Sunday afternoon at McKenzie Arena, seeing the two-point margin of defeat against a Southeastern Conference opponent would be cause for optimism.
And they wouldn't be wrong. The Mocs played well enough to win against an SEC team.
They didn't, though, and UTC coach Katie Burrows wasn't hearing any talk about moral victories after the Mocs fell to 1-3 to start her third season leading her alma mater.
"Free throws and turnovers. Free throws and turnovers," Burrows said. "Guys, the numbers don't lie, and I'm sick of it and I told the kids that, because it's all under their control. There are things that when I look back at film, I 100% can do better, and I'm always looking for those things because I want to be excellent. But if we don't take care of that, we're not going to win ballgames, especially giving up 80 points."
The Mocs led for 26:34 of game time and had a season-high 17 assists, but they struggled in the fourth quarter as the Commodores (2-1) went on a backbreaking 10-0 run to take the lead for good.
"We're not doing a good job where the personnel is concerned for the other teams, we have breakdowns, and that's when they burn us," Burrows added. "They get on runs, and we don't recover; they punch us in the mouth, and we don't punch back. It has to be fixed. It has to be fixed now, because it's all in our control."
Junior forward Abbey Cornelius had 18 rebounds, her most as a Moc, and matched a career high with five blocks. Dena Jarrells notched a career-high 15 points to lead UTC in scoring and was joined in double figures by Cornelius (13), Amaria Pugh, Anna Walker and Eboni Williams (11 each), plus Bria Dial (10).
Vanderbilt's Koi Love had 21 points, 16 rebounds, three assists, three steals and two blocks.
The Mocs, who were coming off a 76-65 home win against Tennessee Tech two days earlier, return to competition Tuesday at Austin Peay (2-1) as they continue to prepare for the start of Southern Conference play next month.
Mocs star
Cornelius had seven offensive rebounds, and she cleaned up a number of mistakes on the defensive end by blocking or contesting shots. The points are always going to be an added bonus to her game; it was the other things that made her so valuable Sunday.
Key stats
Entering the fourth quarter, the Mocs had hit 10 of 14 free throws (71%) while shooting 44% from both the field and 3-point range (7-for-16). In the final 10 minutes, those numbers plummeted: The Mocs missed four of six free throws, as well as five of seven shots outside the arc until a meaningless make by Jarrells with less than two seconds remaining.
Turning point
Vanderbilt's fourth-quarter run took just 2:19 of game time, but during that span the Mocs missed five field-goal attempts and two free throws. The Commodores scored on four consecutive possessions to turn a 62-58 deficit into a 68-62 advantage. The Mocs then cut their deficit to two before going 3:04 without a point. In both instances, UTC got to the line - only to miss both foul shots.
Quotable
"We don't take moral victories; we wanted to win that game. Any SEC team, no matter who they are, is a good win for us, but I think coming out of it, we see that score and we're mad about it, but we know we can play with any team and once we get in conference play, these tough nonconference games we're playing are definitely going to help us." - Cornelius on the value of Sunday's game
Final thought
Burrows always finds a way to face the toughest competition possible because she's building teams for March. The 1-13 start to last season isn't forgotten, but there's no question the Mocs benefited from those games as they ultimately won a share of the SoCon regular-season title. This UTC team is better than that one, though, and the Mocs should have beaten the Commodores. Still, if they can take lessons on how to finish - or in this case, how not to finish - games, they'll be in the thick of things in February and March.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.