The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team is ranked second in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll released Tuesday, Jan. 28.
Chattanooga (17-3) is behind Gonzaga (18-3) of the West Coast Conference for the second straight week. The Bulldogs received 25 first place votes and had 763 points compared to UTC’s 724 points. The top four remained the same with San Diego (18-2) third with 699 points and Bowling Green (16-3) fourth with 646 points. Wichita State (16-2) moved up three spots to fifth with 636 points and the remaining six first place votes.
Halfway through the Southern Conference portion of its schedule, Chattanooga is 9-0 in league play and 17-3 overall. UTC has posted wins over Alabama, Auburn and Colorado State and has a 8-3 non-conference record.
Chattanooga leads the SoCon in eight categories including scoring offense (69.8) and scoring defense (58.1) while outscoring opponents by 11.7 points per game. From the field UTC is shooting a league-best 44.4 percent while its 15.6 assists per game leads the SoCon.
At the McKenzie Arena, Chattanooga has won 35 consecutive games, the longest active streak among all NCAA Division I schools. The Lady Mocs, on a 13-game win streak, has also won 25 straight regular season SoCon games.
On January 25, at the Roundhouse, UTC won its 17th game this season, earning head coach Jim Foster his 800th career win.
Rounding out the Top 10 is James Madison (15-4) in sixth, BYU (16-4) is seventh and Albany (16-3) is eighth. Falling four spots from fifth last week to ninth this week is St. Mary’s (16-4) and Marist (15-5) holds onto 10th.
The West Coast Conference has four teams in the Top 10 led by Gonzaga, San Diego, BYU and St. Mary’s. Other conferences represented in the Top 10 are Mid-American (Bowling Green), Missouri Valley (Wichita State), Colonial (James Madison), America East (Albany) and Metro Atlantics (Marist). Chattanooga is the only Southern Conference school representing the league in the poll.
UTC is also receiving votes in the AP Top 25 over the last couple of weeks while maintaining its 56 RPI.
Chattanooga returns to action Saturday at Noon against the SoCon second-place team Davidson (10-10, 7-2). Larry Ward, the “Voice of the Lady Mocs” will have the call LIVE on ESPN 105.1 “The Zone”. Live stats as well as streaming audio and video will be available on the women’s basketball schedule page at GoMocs.com.