With the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team down to nine players for this past Monday's game at seventh-ranked Tennessee, somebody was going to have to go above and beyond for the Mocs.
Although Amaria Pugh's career-high 17 points weren't enough to close the gap as the Lady Volunteers overwhelmed UTC by 50, it's not all that surprising Pugh turned out to be the player who stepped up.
As has been the case for a team that continues to search for the right pieces to have a successful season, Pugh has had to figure out where she could be most effective for UTC. That journey was delayed as the 5-foot-10 junior guard missed the first three games due to injury, but she started getting worked into the rotation upon her return, and after a slow start with a combined five points in her first three games, she has increased her production.
And she's been her best against Southeastern Conference competition: In 12 games so far this season, her highest-scoring outputs have come against Tennessee (17 points), Alabama (12) and Vanderbilt (nine, a total she matched against North Alabama). Outside of those four games, she has averaged 4.0 points - a number she hit on the head in Thursday's 61-51 loss to Jacksonville State in Alabama.
But scoring outbursts aren't uncommon for Pugh, who transferred to UTC before the 2020-21 season.
After playing her 2018-19 freshman season at Freed-Hardeman, an NAIA program in Henderson, Tennessee, she remained in state but transferred to Dyersburg State - a community college in her hometown - and averaged 23 points in a 15-game, two-month span that included 51 points against Columbia State and 34 against Roane State. She also scored 34 against Blue Mountain's junior varsity.
"I think just showing what I can do against such a challenging team, I can carry that over to Southern Conference play and help us get to where we need to be," Pugh said after Monday's loss at Tennessee.
The Mocs (2-13) are now set to begin their SoCon schedule, having wrapped up nonconference play with the road loss to ASUN member Jacksonville State (9-3). For UTC, the road to SoCon play and next Thursday's opener at Samford was a 15-game stretch filled with disappointments due to an ever-changing roster.
All-SoCon forward Eboni Williams was thought to be coming back in December but is no longer part of the program. The Mocs entered the season knowing they'd be without the services of reserve forward Ruona Usuwiaba (medically disqualified) and guard Morgan Hill (graduated and moved on), and that left a roster filled with youth. They were further limited Monday by the absences of starting point guard Dena Jarrells and reserve forward Karsen Murphy, who missed due to illness.
"Within our conference, we probably had the toughest schedule," UTC coach Katie Burrows said Monday. "I would be shocked to see that anybody else had a tougher schedule than we do, and keep in mind that weren't full go today, and when I built the schedule, our roster looked different. Some things have happened over the course of several months where we just don't look the same as we did, and at the same time, I think those opportunities are going to make us better when we start conference play next week.
"We have an opportunity to get better before we start into when they say it really counts, right? They all count in the grand scheme of things; you don't set out to lose every day, and so you really want to get better and get those wins, and we're not going to see that caliber of team (Tennessee) in conference play. So you've got to figure if you're able to battle to gut it out against the teams in nonconference, when you get to conference, it's not going to be easy, but it's going to be like, 'OK, we've seen it all, so now let me just go take care of business."
And with more performances like the one Pugh put together against Tennessee, there's no reason the Mocs can't.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.