For the second straight game, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team played poorly in the second and third quarters against Wofford.
Only this time, the Mocs didn't have a good enough start or strong enough finish to make up for it - and it cost them in a 67-44 Southern Conference loss Saturday afternoon in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Shooting 20% in the middle 20 minutes of Saturday's game was actually an improvement from the 16% the Mocs shot Thursday against the Terriers. However, while UTC trailed by six points going into the final quarter in the series opener and was able to make a run and hold on to win 60-52, the visitors trailed 50-29 this time going into the fourth and had not posed much of a threat since midway through the second quarter.
The Mocs' defense was satisfactory, but they failed to rebound after initial stops and Wofford turned 11 offensive rebounds into 16 points. Combined with UTC's shooting struggles after the first quarter, the rout was on.
Bria Dial, with 11 points, was the only player who scored in double figures for UTC (10-8, 5-4). Abbey Cornelius added eight with six rebounds and matched Dial with two blocks. Only six UTC players clocked at least 20 minutes of game time, with Anna Walker joining starters Cornelius, Dial, Sigrun Olafsdottir, Amaria Pugh and Eboni Williams on that list as coach Katie Burrows tried 12 lineup combinations against the Terriers (10-6, 6-3).
Jamari McDavid had 16 points and Lilly Hatton 13 for the hosts.
UTC had pulled into a tie for third place with Wofford in the SoCon standings due to Thursday's win, but now the Mocs are back in fourth, with Samford (11-7, 8-1) and Mercer (14-5, 7-2) at the top.
So the biggest mystery in the SoCon remains the Mocs, who, after opening league play with a 15-point win against East Tennessee State University, have split series with the three teams now ahead of them as well as Furman, which is now sixth in the eight-team standings. UTC hosts fifth-place Western Carolina (5-12, 2-5) next Thursday and Saturday and seventh-place UNC Greensboro on Feb. 19 and 21 before closing the regular season at last-place ETSU.
"I just want my kids to find some consistency," Burrows said on the postgame radio broadcast. "I just want them to play consistently for four quarters, and we still haven't done that. That was a focus today. We just are not taking care of business.
"I don't know. Is it mental? Is it physical? We talked about this before the game: They've got to push through and unselfishly do the right things for their teammates. It's not a lack of effort; they're playing hard, but if there's no method to your madness, then you're not going to be successful."
Staff photo by C.B. Schmelter / UTC coach Katie Burrows hopes to see her team develop some consistency over the final five games of the regular season.Mocs star
There's no reason to force an answer in here. Nobody on the team played well.
Key stats
After holding Wofford to 18 points in the paint on Thursday, UTC allowed twice as many (36) as the Terriers attacked the basket at every turn Saturday.
Turning point
The second quarter did the Mocs no favors, as Wofford started the period on a 16-3 run that helped them assume control.
Quotable
"We couldn't put the ball in the hole, and the reason we can't put the ball in the hole is because again, we start becoming individualistic and we're settling for shots." - Burrows
Final thought
There's nothing that can be written in this space that hasn't been said multiple times. This UTC team is 18 games into the season and still lacks the consistency to be considered a serious threat in the SoCon. The league tournament in Asheville, North Carolina, starts March 4. Is there anything out there to suggest the Mocs are going to change by then?
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.