With the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team hosting Samford again Saturday, just two days after losing to the Bulldogs at McKenzie Arena, there wasn't much time for the Mocs to dwell on their lackluster effort in Thursday's 11-point defeat.
And yet Saturday's game started with the Mocs demonstrating noticeable improvement in effort. They won loose balls early - and late - executed their offense and limited quality looks for Samford, the result of which was ultimately a 70-57 Southern Conference win.
Most of UTC's offensive execution ended in layups. Abbey Cornelius and Eboni Williams had success inside during the 71-60 loss Thursday, when they combined for 28 points as the Mocs' only double-digit scorers. Cornelius and Williams did so again Saturday, when UTC scored 30 points in the paint for the second second straight game, but this time the home team made three more 3-pointers than it had Thursday and allowed Samford to make five fewer.
The game was never really in doubt for the Mocs, who shot 71% in the first quarter to go ahead 23-15, then pushed their lead 40-24 by halftime and 59-33 entering the fourth quarter. The Mocs, who never trailed, limited themselves to 12 turnovers in the game and held the Bulldogs to fewer than 60 points for the first time in six meetings.
Cornelius led the Mocs in scoring 16 points, and Williams was right behind her on the list with 15 plus a game-high 14 rebounds, as well as four assists and three steals. Bria Dial scored 10 points, and Dena Jarrells and Amaria Pugh added nine each, with the Mocs 19 points better than Samford in the 17 minutes that Jarrells played.
It's the type of effort that is probably needed as UTC (8-6, 3-2) plays its next two SoCon series on the road, facing Mercer next Thursday and Saturday before visiting Wofford for games on Feb. 4 and 6.
Andrea Coumoyer had a game-high 19 points for the Bulldogs (7-7, 4-1). No other Samford player scored more than seven, and former Rhea County standout Mallory Hampton was held to two points on 1-for-6 shooting and had four turnovers in a team-high 30 minutes.
Mocs star
Cornelius stuffed the stat sheet with eight rebounds, six assists, two steals and a pair of blocks to go with her points.
Key stats
The Mocs outscored Samford by 12 from 3-point range, by six in the paint and by three off turnovers. That's 21 extra points for UTC in a game that it won by 13.
Turning point
It was the Mocs' second possession, which resulted in a 3-pointer by Dial. Little did anyone know at the time, but that ended up being the only go-ahead basket in the game - the Mocs had jumped out to a double-digit lead by the first possession of the second quarter, and they never looked back.
Quotable
"We had some discussions, and then they had some discussions and made a decision that they wanted to respond in a positive way and get after it." - UTC coach Katie Burrows on the differences between the two games against Samford
"I thought Thursday we got off to a slow start, and they had the first punch and we were never able to swing back, but today we definitely came out and had the first punch." - Cornelius
Final thought
It's been an up-and-down season so far for the Mocs, so it should come as no surprise that they came away with their second consecutive split in a conference series, having won first and then lost at Furman last weekend. With two consecutive road series ahead, they'll need to string some wins together so they can stay near the top of what should be a balanced race for the SoCon crown.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.