If Katie Galloway Burrows lives to be 100, she’ll never forget Tuesday, November 6, 2018 because it was a monumental day for the former Lookout Valley and Lady Moc basketball standout.
Burrows claimed her first victory as the head coach of the Lady Mocs with a 61-55 victory over the Lee University Lady Flames Tuesday night at McKenzie Arena before 1,454 appreciative basketball fans.
Haley Schubert scored the first bucket some 35 seconds into the first quarter to give the Lady Flames a 2-0 lead, but that’s the only time they led as Chattanooga knotted the score with a layup from Brooke Burns 17 seconds later and took the lead at 5-2 following a 3 by Molly Melton with 7:34 left in the opening period.
Chattanooga’s biggest lead in the first half was a dozen points at the 1:42 mark of the second quarter when Burns scored on a drive down the lane to put the Lady Mocs ahead 26-14 and capping off a 10-2 run.
The biggest lead of the game was 14 points at 59-45 when Abbey Cornelius scored on a reverse layup with 2:33to play.
Lee finished the game on a 10-2 run, but the game ended before they could get any closer than the six-point final margin.
Burrows was all smiles when she came into the interview room following her first win.
“Overall I’m happy with the win, but I’m glad it’s behind me. I really didn’t get nervous until I woke up this morning, but once I got to the office this morning and watched a little film, it’s been business as usual for me,” Burrows said.
“We know that Lee has a strong program, even though they are a division II team, but we were just a little bit quicker and stronger. One of our goals is to make more free throws than the other team and we did, but we need to get better looks.
“And we can’t afford to have 17 turnovers, but we did better with that in the second half with only six. We were excited to play this game, but it’s time to move on,” she said, knowing that a Louisville will be stopping by on Friday for Chattanooga’s next game.
Junior guard Lakelyn Bouldin averaged 12.3 points per game a year ago and returned as the leading scorer for the Lady Mocs.
She finished as the scoring leader on Tuesday with 13 points, despite not scoring in the first half.
“I don’t think she was in rhythm at the start, so I pulled her so she could get refocused. But she did hit seven of eight free throws as she got fouled a lot,” Burrows explained.
While Bouldin was leading the way with 13, Arianne Whitaker and Burns were also in double figures with 10 points apiece.
All of Whitaker’s points came in the first five minutes of the second quarter when Chattanooga stretched a 14-7 lead at the first break to 24-14 when the junior from Cincinnati canned a pair of free throws.
Abby Bertram was the only Lee player in double figures as she finished with 17. Kayla Tillie was next with eight.
Chattanooga won the rebound battle by a 33-28 margin as Burns snagged seven. Anna Woodford had the same number for Lee.
The Lady Mocs shot 46.7 percent from the field by hitting 21 of 45 attempts while sinking just two of 11 (18.2 percent) from 3-point range. They were 17 of 24 from the charity stripe for 70.8 percent.
Lee countered with 39.3 percent from the field on 22 of 56 shooting while connecting on just seven of 22 from long range for 31.8 percent. They canned four of seven from the free throw line for 57.1 percent.
Chattanooga’s next game is Friday against Louisville.
LEE 7 12 20 16 -- 55
CHATTANOOGA 14 14 23 10 -- 61
LEE (55) – Widenski 2, Roddy 6, Bertram 17, Tillie 8, Schubert 6, Wright, Cheeks 1, Woodford 3, Lentz 5, Grant 2, Hughes 2, Boggess.
CHATTANOOGA (61) – Whitaker 10, Melton 6, Davenport 3, Burns 10, Bouldin 13, Lee, Dial, Long 4, Williams 9, Cornelius 4, Morgan 2.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)