CHARLESTON, S.C. --- University of Tennessee at Chattanooga junior Ashlen Dewart (Spartanburg, S.C.) scored 20 second half points to lead the Lady Mocs to a 73-58 win over the College of Charleston Saturday afternoon at TD Arena.
Chattanooga improves to 22-3 overall, remains atop the Southern Conference standings at 15-1 and improves its win streak to 12 games, seventh longest in school history.
The Cougars drop to 11-13 on the year and 7-8 in league play.
With the score tied 39-39 at halftime, Dewart came out strong to start the second outscoring CofC 10-2 over the first 3:06 and the Lady Mocs went on to put together a 13-3 run sparked by back-to-back layups from junior Alex Black (Memphis, Tenn.) and capped off by a 3-pointer from reserve point freshman Alicia Payne (Memphis, Tenn.) to give UTC its largest lead of the game, 62-46, with 8:03 to play.
Afreyea Tolbert hit a jumper for the Cougars with 15:41 to play, but couldn’t connect on another field goal over the next 9:03 as Chattanooga built up its 16-point lead. Latisha Harris stepped up for the Cougars and scored six of their eight straight points over the next 1:43 to cut Chattanooga’s lead to 62-54 with 4:55 to play. However, Chattanooga, led by Dewart’s six points, outscored the College of Charleston 11-4 over the final 4:01 of the game for the win.
In the first half, senior Kylie Lambert (Etowah, Tenn.) drained a 3-pointer at the 15:17 mark to put the Lady Mocs up 11-5. The Cougars came back with six straight points to knot it up 11-11 with 13:23 to play in the first and the two teams would trade the lead 10 times and tie it up four more times before half.
Dupree was 6-of-10 from the field in the first half, including a 3-pointer, in just 12 minutes of play. The Lady Mocs went 16-of-33 (48.5%) in the first half and was 4-of-4 in the frame.
Dewart led three Chattanooga players in double figures with her fifth double-double of the year scoring a game-high 24 points and 13 rebounds. Fellow center junior Faith Dupree (Knoxville, Tenn.) had 13 points, all in the first half and junior Taylor Hall (New Tazewell, Tenn.) scored 10 points and pulled down six rebounds.
Freshman Tatianna Jackson (Atlanta, Ga.) and senior Kayla Christopher (Oliver Springs, Tenn.) each pulled down seven rebounds. Jackson had four offensive boards and two steals while Christopher dished out a team-high four assists and took sole possession of second on the Lady Mocs 3-pointers made chart with 217.
The Lady Mocs outrebounded the Cougars 53-36, 24-15 in the second half, with 18 offensive boards. UTC outscored the College of Charleston 40-18 in the paint and 25-12 off the bench. The Cougars scored 11 points off 15 Chattanooga turnovers compared to the Lady Mocs’ five points off 10 Cougar mistakes.
The Lady Mocs will move on to Statesboro, Ga., to take on Georgia Southern Monday night at Hanner Fieldhouse. The game will tip off at 7 p.m. Follow all the action live at GoMocs.com. Larry Ward the “Voice of the Lady Mocs” will have the call on ESPN 105.1 FM prior to the tip.