Chattanooga 67, No. 4 Tennessee 63
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - For the second time in three years, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga came away with a stunning win over a ranked Tennessee Lady Vols team Wednesday night at the McKenzie Arena.
Chattanooga started strong and saw its lead climb to 37-20 with just one minute remaining in the first half and went into halftime at 37-21.
The Mocs saw their first half advantage dissipate down the stretch as the Lady Vols began chipping away at the lead. With 4:31 to play, UT grabbed two offensive boards and Jasmine Jones, who finished the game with a team-high 19 points, put back a layup to tie the game 57-57.
Chattanooga regained the lead, but the Lady Vols would tie it up three more times, the latest being a 63-63 tangle on a pair of free throws from Bashara Graves with 1:05 to play.
With a minute left in regulation Andraya Carter managed a steal and went for the layup and UTK’s first lead since the 18:58 mark of the first half. But that was brought to a halt. Freshman Keiana Gilbert, who led all scorers with a career-high 27 points, got her hands up for the block and the Mocs got the ball back.
Junior Alicia Payne was fouled on her trip down the court and connected on just one of her two free throws to give the Mocs a slim 64-63 lead with 53 seconds remaining.
With senior Ka'Vonne Towns and sophomore Jasmine Joyner back in the game, Joyner grabbed a defensive rebound and was fouled. She too would make just one of her two charity tosses, putting the Mocs up 65-63.
Tennessee’s Jasmine Jones missed her second jumper in as many tries in the final minute of play and Chattanooga would once again pounce on the rebound. Towns was fouled after the grab and made the most of her time at the charity stripe, draining both with three seconds remaining to seal the win.
Gilbert was 11-of-19 from the field and 5-of-7 from the free throw line, while pulling down five rebounds and recording one important blocked shot. She was joined in double figures by redshirt senior Destiny Bramblett who had a career-high 12 points and five rebounds.
Sophomore Moses Johnson snared a career-best eight rebounds and added eight points, while classmate Chelsey Shumpert dished out four assists with eight points and no turnovers in 24 minutes.
Chattanooga was 24-of-45 from the field (53.3%) and was outscored in the paint 42-32 by the Lady Vols. The Mocs had 11 points off 14 Tennessee turnovers but gave up 13 points on 17 errors. Tennessee outrebounded Chattanooga 35-30 and converted 17 offensive boards into 26 points while the Mocs had just 11 points on eight off the offensive glass.
Jones led the Lady Vols with 19 points on 7-of-15 from the field and pulled down eight rebounds. Ariel Massengale hit a pair of 3-pointers and was the only other Tennessee player in double digits with 11 points.
Chattanooga improves to 4-2 on the year and will travel to Arkansas State for a Monday night matchup, while the Lady Vols drop their first game of the year to move to 4-1.
UTC's next home game is against No. 5 Stanford on Wednesday, Dec. 17, at 6:00 p.m.
Samford 79, UT Martin 75
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Samford’s Taylor Reece and Hannah Nichols scored 22 points each to lead the Bulldog women’s basketball team to a 79-75 win over the UT Martin Skyhawks Wednesday afternoon in the Pete Hanna Center.
Nichols’ 22 points set a new career high for the sophomore. She made 8-of-12 shots from the floor and 6-of-9 from three-point range. In addition to her 22 points, Reece grabbed four rebounds and dished out four assists.
Behind Reece and Nichols, freshman Destiney Elliott had 15 points and a career-high nine rebounds. Sophomore Brittany Stevens scored eight points and dished out six assists.
For the Skyhawks, Ashia Jones scored 15 points and pulled down five rebounds. Karisma Tyson scored 11 points for UT Martin, while Tiara Caldwell and Jessy Ward added 10 points each.
In the first half, UT Martin jumped out to an early lead at 7-0 with 16:30 left in the half following a jumper by Shai Warfield-Cross. Samford scored the next five points to cut the lead to two at 7-5 with 13:14 left in the first half after a three-pointer by Kassidy Blevins.
The Skyhawks led by as many as 11 points at 32-21 with 5:14 left in the first half after a three-pointer by Ward. Samford, however closed the half on a 17-5 run to take a 38-37 lead into halftime following a layup by Nichols.
Samford opened the second half on a 10-2 run to push its lead to nine at 48-39 with 17:28 left following a layup by Reece. UT Martin fought back to cut the lead to three points at 50-47 with 13:21 left after a layup by Jones. Samford pushed the lead back out to eight at 55-47 with 12:27 remaining after a three-pointer by Stevens.
UT Martin then went on an 8-0 run to tie the game at 55-55 with 10:11 remaining after a three-pointer by Tyson. The Skyhawks took a brief lead at 61-60 with 8:10 to go after a layup by Jones. Back-to-back baskets by Elliott and Reece gave Samford a 64-61 lead with 6:37 left in the game.
UT Martin came back to tie the game again at 66-66 with 4:27 left after a layup by Caldwell. Samford then went on a 7-0 run to take a 73-66 lead with 2:23 left after a free throw by Krista Stricklin. UT Martin cut the lead to three at 73-70 with 1:38 to go, but the Skyhawks could get no closer as Samford came away with the four-point win at 79-75.
As a team, Samford made 52.7 percent of its shots overall and 50.0 percent from three-point range. UT Martin shot 43.3 percent overall and 30.8 percent from beyond the arc. UT Martin out-rebounded Samford, 36-31.
The win is Samford’s third-straight victory and improves the Bulldogs’ record to 3-1. UT Martin drops to 1-5 with the loss.
Samford will return to action on Friday, Nov. 28, when the Bulldogs play at Georgia State in the first round of the Georgia State Thanksgiving Tournament. The game is scheduled for a 3 p.m. (CT) start.
Indiana 97, ETSU 69
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – For the fourth time this season, the ETSU women’s basketball team had four players in double-figures – led by 16 points from redshirt senior Destiny Mitchell – but it was not enough to overcome the Indiana Hoosiers in a 97-69 loss on Wednesday afternoon inside Assembly Hall.
With the loss, ETSU falls to 3-3 on the young season while Indiana improves to 5-0.
To begin the game, IU got on the board early but the Bucs fired back with four three-pointers from Shamauria Bridges in the first six minutes of the game to help keep pace. With Bridges leading the Blue & Gold on the offensive end, the sophomore guard picked up an unfortunate second foul with 11:24 left to play in the period. With a key offensive weapon on the bench for the duration of the half, the Bucs needed to find another answer on offense as well as slow down the hot-shooting Hoosiers. Down the stretch of the period, IU was able to execute on offense to up its advantage while ETSU was searching for another scoring punch to go along with Bridges and Mitchell. As a result, the Blue & Gold went into halftime trailing, 50-28.
Sporting a sizeable advantage, the home team picked up where it left off in the second half. After IU increased its lead to a then-game-high 27 points with 15:36 to go, the Bucs refused go away lightly and capped a 16-5 run with a Mitchell jumper with 11:09 to go. The Hoosiers then responded with a 15-1 run over the next six minutes to essentially put the game away. Following IU going up by a game-high 33 points with 4:53 left to play, ETSU went on a late surge to bring the score to 97-69 at the final horn.
Redshirt senior Mitchell recorded her second double-double of the season – and 28th of her career – with 11 rebounds to go along with her point total. Three additional Buccaneers tallied double-digit scoring performances including 15 points from Bridges, 14 from Chandler Christopher and 10 from Maria Bond. For the third-consecutive game, Bridges knocked down a career-high five three-pointers and Bond’s eight rebounds are a season-high. Meanwhile, the Hoosiers featured five players in double-figures including a game-high 21 points from Larryn Brooks.
For the game, Indiana shot the ball at an impressive 57 percent including 64 percent in the first half. The Hoosiers also drained 8-of-15 three-pointers and converted on 17-of-22 opportunities from the free throw line. In addition, IU turned 21 ETSU turnovers into 32 points and recorded 46 points in the paint as well as notched 27 bench points.
The Bucs shot it at a 43 percent clip over the course of the contest and buried a fairly-efficient 11-of-16 from the charity stripe. Trailing in many of the statistical categories, the Blue & Gold did outrebound the Hoosiers, 34-33, and converted 12 offensive rebounds into nine second-chance points. ETSU also turned Indiana over 13 times resulting in 14 points off of these miscues.
After returning to Johnson City, Tennessee for the Thanksgiving holiday, the Bucs will hit the road again to face Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia on Saturday, Nov. 29, at 5 p.m.