The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team had four in double figures Thursday night at the McKenzie Arena and ran its home court Southern Conference win streak to 45 games with a 67-46 win over Western Carolina.
The Mocs improve to 10-8 overall and 4-0 in league play while the Cats fall to 5-15 and 0-5 against the conference.
Senior Queen Alford (Decatur, Ga.) led four Mocs in double figures with 12 points. Freshman Lakelyn Bouldin (Spencer, Tenn.) was 5-of-5 from the free throw line with 11 points while Keiana and Aryanna Gilbert (Pulaski, Tenn.) each dropped in 10 in the win.
The game started with two lead changes and two ties in the first quarter but that would end with 46 seconds remaining in the opening frame.
Bouldin drained the first of her two 3-pointers, sparking a 13-0 run that would spill into the second quarter and Chattanooga would never trail again.
Bouldin was fouled with less than a second remaining in the first quarter and connected on all three free throws to make it 15-11. The Mocs scored seven more points to start the second quarter to grab a 22-11 lead at the 8:24 mark.
A few exchanges later and the double-digit lead would be there for good and Chattanooga carried a 39-20 lead into halftime.
The Mocs stretched its lead to 21 points, 45-24 midway through the third quarter, just edging Western Carolina 11-10 in the period and shooting just 21 percent from the field. That would change in the fourth quarter as UTC shot 77.8 percent, making 7-of-9 in the frame and getting its largest lead of the game, 67-44 as the period came to a close.
Chattanooga was 24-of-57 (42.1%) on the night and 7-of-22 from the 3-point line while connecting on 80 percent from the free throw line.
Senior Jasmine Joyner (Southaven, Miss.) started the game with three blocked shots in the first three minutes and had five by halftime, but foul trouble stopped her there. She had a game-high 11 rebounds and six points and moved into eighth on the Mocs’ all-time charts for rebounds, passing Taylor Hall (2010-14) with 819.
Keiana Gilbert had seven boards and six assists with no turnovers. Alford was 3-of-4 from the free throw line and had seven rebounds in 27 minutes. Aryanna Gilbert was 5-of-5 in the game and pulled down five rebounds.
Chattanooga edged the Cats 28-22 in the paint and its bench outscored WCU 25-22. The Mocs had 12 points off 14 Western Carolina turnovers and dished out 15 assists. UTC outrebounded the Catamounts 40-30 with 13 second chance points on 17 offensive boards.
The Catamounts shot 34 percent for the game making just 17-of-50 and were 3-of-17 (17.6%) from the 3-point line.
Western Carolina was led in scoring by Sharae Bonner with 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting. The league’s leading rebounder was held to just five, nearly half her average. Julia Brown had six points off the bench while Lauren LaPlant, Raziyah Farrington and Tembre Moates each chipped in five. Brown and Moates added five rebounds.
Chattanooga returns to action Saturday afternoon hosting UNCG at 2 p.m. in the first game of a double header with the men’s team. The Mocs will host Samford at 5 p.m. Follow all the action online at GoMocs.com.