Story Courtesy Chattanooga sports information
Chattanooga 86, Western Carolina 61
CHATTANOOGA, TN - Laura Hall poured in a career-high six 3-pointers and led the Lady Mocs to the longest winning streak in the nation with an 86-61 win over Western Carolina to stake an outright claim to the Southern Conference regular season title Thursday night at the McKenzie Arena.
“That’s exciting and very welcome to see,” Lady Mocs Head Coach Wes Moore said. “I think Laura’s capable of being a factor for us. I think she’s capable of being a scorer and obviously she was tonight.”
Hall led all scorers with 20 points making 7-of-13 from the floor. The sophomore point guard scored five quick points as UTC jumped out to a 12-0 lead at the 16:48 mark, looking to take control of the game early.
The Catamounts held Chattanooga scoreless over a five minute mark as the Lady Mocs went 0-for-8 in that time, but failed to take full advantage cutting the lead to just eight points. Even with the scoring drought, the Lady Mocs were able to hold onto a 35-23 margin at halftime. Hall had eight points at the break with a pair of 3’s and Nicole Mattison had eight as well with seven rebounds.
In the second half the Lady Mocs continued its offensive onslaught with Hall and Brooke Hand combining for five from beyond the arc in the first 6:10 building the Lady Mocs lead to 52-31. Hand’s first 3-pointer at the 15:11 mark of the second half, sparked a 25-8 run that was capped off by her third 3-pointer with 7:03 to play in the game giving Chattanooga its largest of the game, 68-39.
“The most disappointing thing for us was getting beat on the boards,” Moore said. “With our size we’re going to have to realize its all about getting position. Otherwise its going to come back to haunt us. We shot the ball well, but there are nights when that’s not going to happen and it’s going to come down to who gets the rebounds.”
Western Carolina outrebounded the Lady Mocs 45-35 and had 25 offensive boards. Kendra Eaton pulled down a career-high 10 rebounds.
The two teams were fairly even in the paint with Western Carolina outscoring UTC 30-28 inside. The Lady Cats held a narrow 17-16 margin on second chance points and each bench dropped in 33 points. However, the Lady Mocs scored 30 points off 18 turnovers and went 31-of-63 from the field and tied a season-high for 3-pointers in a game this year with 12.
Hand ended the game with 11 points and Nicole Mattison went 3-for-3 from the charity stripe for 10 points. She had seven rebounds and six assists. Tiffani Roberson led Chattanooga with eight boards and was one of three players with eight points. Alex Anderson had eight points, five boards and three steals while Nancy Moore’s eight was a career-high. The Lady Mocs blocked eight shots on the night with Anderson, Roberson and Katasha Brown each getting two.
Western Carolina was led in scoring by Chevon Keith off the bench with 12 points and seven rebounds and Monique Dawson knocked down 10 points. Lauren Powell had nine points as did Amelia Miller who scored a career-high. Chattanooga will take the weekend off before returning to McKenzie to host Furman Monday, Feb. 13. The game will tip-off at 7 p.m.
Notes from the Sideline
?Win streak advance to 19 games ? longest active win streak in the nation with North Carolina’s OT loss at Maryland.
?Second longest win streak in school history. (longest was 27 capped off by NCAA tournament win over Rutgers in 2003-04 season).
?Chattanooga clinched the Southern Conference regular season title outright.
o Fourth consecutive outright title
o Seventh consecutive shared or outright
o Twelfth since 1977-78.
?Chattanooga’s seventh consecutive 20-win season, 10th since 1977-78.
?SoCon win streak advances to 14 games
?Home court win streak advances to 11 games
?Home court SoCon regular season win streak advances to 30 games
?Seniors have won 100 games as a class. Most won by a class at UTC is 103 by last year’s senior class.
The Last Time ...
... the Lady Mocs lost at home in the regular season to a Southern Conference team was Feb. 6, 2003 to Western Carolina, 73-69. After that loss, the Lady Mocs embarked on a 38-game Southern Conference win streak was ended by Georgia Southern in Statesboro, Ga., Jan. 4, 2005, 61-53. The loss to Georgia Southern was the last time the Lady Mocs lost in the regular season. East Tennessee defeated UTC in the second round of the 2005 SoCon tournament for UTC’s last SoCon loss.
Katasha Brown
Moved to seventh all-time in scoring at UTC with 1,381 points
Has sole possession of eighth all-time with 40 career blocked shots.
Laura Hall
3-Pointers
Made a career-high six tonight. Third player to make six in a game this year (Brown, twice; Hand twice). 57 career treys.
Brooke Hand
3-Pointers
Reached 60 3-pointers this season. 57 was best last year. Has 117 for her career.
Alex Anderson
Blocking
Had two blocked shots tonight to give her 46 on the year and 81 for her career.