There is a chance the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women will play at least one more basketball game this season, but it won't be in the Southern Conference tournament.
The Mocs, seeded second after sharing the conference's regular-season title, were upset 63-55 by No. 7 seed Mercer in the opening round Thursday at Harrah's Cherokee Center in Asheville, North Carolina. A cold second quarter and a combined 42 points from the Bears' Amoria Neal-Tysor and Jaron Dougherty put UTC's hopes for another SoCon title - and the automatic NCAA tournament berth that comes with the league tourney crown - on ice.
"Not the ending we were hoping for under such a crazy turnaround in our season," UTC coach Katie Burrows told the media afterward.
It may not, however, be the ending after all for the team that started this season 1-13 before finding its form in league play to win its 22nd SoCon regular-season title.
If top-seeded Samford wins the SoCon tournament, the Mocs would receive a bid in the Women's National Invitation Tournament. Samford defeated No. 8 seed Western Carolina 77-62 on Thursday and advanced to a Friday semifinal against fourth-seeded Furman, which won 68-54 in its tourney opener against No. 5 Wofford.
Mercer (8-22), which split the regular-season series with UTC and is going for its third straight SoCon tournament title, advances to face No. 3 seed UNC Greensboro, a 57-47 winner against No. 6 East Tennessee State. The women's tournament has Saturday off - the men's quarterfinals are that day in Asheville - with the title game Sunday.
UTC sophomore Abbey Cornelius had 15 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Mocs, with Eboni Williams adding 14 points and six rebounds before leaving the game with an injury early in the fourth quarter. Bria Dial scored 13 points, and Lakelyn Bouldin from Van Buren County had seven points and five rebounds in what could be her final game for the Mocs. Fellow senior guard Nakeia Burks, a SoCon all-defensive pick, had six points and four rebounds, but the Mocs had just two steals and committed 13 turnovers to Mercer's seven.
UTC (11-18) got off to a quick start with the first six points of the game and led 16-14 after one quarter as Williams scored eight of her points in the first six minutes. Neal-Tysor led a quick Mercer surge to start the second quarter, though, with a Shannon Titus jumper putting the Bears up 27-20 with just less than three minutes left in the period.
That score stood at halftime as the Mocs did not score in the final 5:29 of the second quarter, missing their last seven shots of the period.
"For some reason, we just didn't do a very good job early on moving the ball," Burrows said. "Well, the first few possessions we did, and then we quit moving the ball and reversing it. That caused a little bit of a deficit for us at the half, and obviously we were able to come out and create better in the second half."
The Mocs executed much better in the third quarter, shooting 54%, but the Bears were even better at 8-for-14 to increase their lead to eight points leading into the final 10 minutes. A Dial jumper cut UTC's deficit to six with just less than nine minutes to play, but UTC came away empty-handed on its next five possessions.
Dougherty, a first-team All-SoCon selection, two minutes later put a dagger in UTC's hopes with a three-point play on a step-back jumper to push the lead back to eight. Dougherty finished with 19 points and Neal-Tysor had 23.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.