The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team let a third quarter 19-point lead slip away but held on to beat UNCG Saturday afternoon at the McKenzie Arnea, 58-55 in Southern Conference action.
Chattanooga grabbed its sixth straight win of the season, 13th against the conference in the regular season, to improve to 11-8 overall and 5-0 in league play. UNCG drops a game below .500 with a 10-11 mark and 1-5 against the SoCon. The win was also the Mocs’ 46th SoCon regular season home court victory.
Chattanooga senior Chelsey Shumpert (Paducah, Ky.) hit a 3-pointer at the 4:18 mark of the third quarter to give UTC its largest lead of the game, 50-31.
UNCG’s Shanese Harris put in a layup at the 3:51 mark, sparking a 13-0 run by the Spartans to cut the Mocs’ lead to 50-44 at the 9:41 mark of the fourth quarter.
Junior Keiana Gilbert (Pulaski, Tenn.) paused the run with a jumper near the free throw line but UNCG’s Bailey Williams responded with one of her McKenzie Arena record six 3-pointers to make it a five-point game, 52-47 with 6:45 remaining.
Shumpert connected on another of her three treys to push the Mocs’ lead back to eight points, 55-47 with 4:47 to play, but the Spartans drained back-to-back 3-pointers and made it a two-point game for the first time since midway through the first quarter, 55-53 with 3:08 to play.
Chattanooga traded layups in the final 15 seconds and Shumpert, fouled with 5.9 seconds to play, made one of her two free throws to give Chattanooga a slim 58-55 lead. The Mocs’ defense stepped up and denied Williams and the Spartans a chance for a 3-pointer. Instead Shanese Harris drove the lane but missed the layup as time ran out.
The Mocs were 21-of-50 for the game from the field and made 6-of-14 from beyond the arc. Shumpert’s miss in the final seconds at the charity stripe was the Mocs’ lone missed free throw, making them 10-of-11 for the game.
UNCG scored first and it would be their only lead of the game. The contest would be tied up four times before the Mocs took control, leading 14-10 after the first quarter.
In the second frame, UTC was 9-of-14 (64.3%) from the field. Shumpert, Keiana Gilbert, her sister Aryanna were a combined 7-of-7 in the frame that included a 3-pointer and a three-point play for 16 of the Mocs 21 points. UTC carried a 35-24 lead into the half.
Chattanooga started the third quarter outscoring UNCG 15-7 and extended its lead to 19 points twice before the Spartans jumped to life and outscored UTC 10-0 over the final 3:30 of the period. Williams hit a 3-pointer to extend the run to 13-0 just moments into the final period, but Chattanooga was able to hold them off for the win.
Shumpert led four Mocs in double figures with 13 points, making 3-of-6 from beyond the arc. She now has 137 career treys, passing Tenisha Townsend (2008-12) for ninth. She added a game-high four assists and had three steals.
Keiana Gilbert just missed a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds and had a season-high four steals. Senior Queen Alford (Decatur, Ga.) was 4-of-7 for the game and had 11 points.
Senior Jasmine Joyner (Southaven, Miss.) contributed 10 points, seven rebounds and three assists while playing all 40 minutes. She added five more blocked shots to her SoCon record and ties UConn’s Rebekah Lobo (1992-95) for 15th on the NCAA all-time charts with 396 for her career.
The Mocs lead the nation in fewest fouls per game and had just seven today. This marks the eighth time this season UTC has had fewer than 10 fouls in a game.
UNCG’s Williams was 6-of-9 from beyond the arc and led all scorers with 20 points. She also had four assists and five turnovers. Harris, the only other Spartan in double figures scoring 14 of UNCG’s 25 bench points. India Timpton had a team-best eight rebounds, six points and three assists.
Chattanooga outscored the Spartans 24-16 in the paint and had 19 points off 13 turnovers. UTC blanked UNCG 12-0 on fastbreaks and each team had five second chance points.
Chattanooga will hit the road next week beginning with an early-bird game at Wofford. Tip is set for 11:00 a.m. at the Benjamin Johnson Arena. The Mocs will finish out the road trip with a 2 p.m. matchup at Furman. Follow all the action online at GoMocs.com.