The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team will hit the road for the third straight game to take on Samford in a Southern Conference matchup Wednesday night at the Pete Hanna Center.
The Lady Mocs moved into first place in the Southern Conference with their win at Davidson last Friday and remained atop the league standings with a win at Western Carolina two days later. Chattanooga’s lone loss in the SoCon was an overtime fall at Elon.
UTC averages 69.8 points per game, second best in the SoCon and has a league-best 14.8 scoring margin. From the field, the Lady Mocs are third for field goal shooting making 41.8 percent of their shots while allowing opponents to make just 36 percent of their attempts. From beyond the 3-point line, Chattanooga is second in the conference with 6.8 per game and shooting 31.2 percent while making 65.6 from the free throw line.
On the boards, the Lady Mocs are third in rebounding average with 37.9 per game and outrebound opponents by 2.6 boards per game. UTC is fourth in the league in steals with 10.4 per game and second for assists with 15.2 per game. The Lady Mocs lead the SoCon with a 5.00 turnover margin (14.4-19.4) and first for assist-turnover ratio with 15.2 assists per game compared to 14.4 turnovers per game.
Junior Ashlen Dewart (Spartanburg, S.C.) is third in the league in scoring with 16.1 points per game and second on the team in rebounding with 6.2 per game while leading the SoCon in field goal percentage making 52.6 percent of her shots.
Senior Kayla Christopher is second on the team in scoring with 12.5 points per game and second in the league for 3-point shooting making 43.7 percent of her attempts. She is third in field goal percentage shooting .477 and third for made 3-pointers with 2.2 per game. Junior Taylor Hall (New Tazewell, Tenn.) leads the team with 33 steals on the year and is third on the team in scoring with 9.0 points per game.
Senior Kylie Lambert (Etowah, Tenn.) has a team-best 6.3 rebounds per game and is eighth in the SoCon with 2.5 on the offensive end.
Chattanooga and Samford have met 16 times since 1998 and 10 times since the Bulldogs joined the Southern Conference in 2008. UTC holds an 10-6 advantage and 5-5 in SoCon play. The Bulldogs swept the Lady Mocs in both regular season contests and the SoCon tournament in 2011 before going on to beat Appalachian State in the finals. The two teams split the games last year with each winning at home.