The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team snapped a nine-game losing streak Monday with a wire-to-wire 62-51 win over UNC Asheville at McKenzie Arena.
The Mocs led by as many as 25, using a 15-0 third-quarter run to completely assume control of the game against the Bulldogs, who were 5-5 with three Southern Conference victories on the year prior to Monday's game.
Dena Jarrells led the way with a career-high 19 points. Brooke Hampel was limited to just 16 minutes because of foul trouble, but made all six of her shots and finished with 13 points, and Abbey Cornelius had 12 points and 16 rebounds for the Mocs. Sigrun Olafsdottir had seven assists and eight rebounds.
It wasn't always pretty. The Mocs had 22 turnovers to just 13 assists and made just 4 of 18 3-point tries, and were outscored 19-9 in the final period, but getting the most important stat - a win, especially after the month-long skid - was important.
"I couldn't be more proud of getting the lead and keeping the lead, because we've been off to a big start before and we totally bombed it," UTC head coach Katie Burrows said, referring to the Eastern Kentucky game when the Mocs jumped out to a 17-2 lead but lost by five. "We didn't do that today, so I was real proud to see that."
UTC out-rebounded the Bulldogs - who defeated SoCon foes Western Carolina, Wofford and East Tennessee State - 38-33 and scored 42 of its points in the paint, and the defense limited UNCA's leading scorers, Nadiria Evans and Kai Carter, to a combined 8-for-30 shooting from the field. Carter finished with a team-high 12, while Evans, who entered the game averaging 19 points per game, was held to nine.
The Mocs don't return home until Jan. 20 when they face Western Carolina. Next up are road contests at Tennessee (Dec. 27), Jacksonville State (Dec. 30), Samford (Jan. 6) and Mercer (Jan. 8).