The Chattanooga women’s basketball team will take part in its second tournament this season. UTC will take on Middle Tennessee on the first day of the Fordham Holiday Classic. In this true tournament format, the Mocs will face either host Fordham or Maine on Day Two.
This will be the 45th meeting between the two Tennessee schools. The Blue Raiders lead the series 27-17. This will be the first matchup between the programs since 2008 when MTSU won 73-65. This will be just the second neutral-site game between the two teams.
Chattanooga defeated Middle Tennessee 84-62 in March 1980 in the Tennessee Women’s College Sports Federation Tournament in Cookeville, Tenn., under former head coach Sharon Fanning.
Probable starters for UTC: Molly Melton, G, 5-4, Sr.; Shelbie Davenport, G/F, 6-0, RSr.; Brooke Burns, G, 5-10, So.; Rochelle Lee, F, 6-3, So.; Lakelyn Bouldin, G., 5-8, Jr.
Offense: Lakelyn Bouldin is the Mocs’ returning leading scorer and continues that trend averaging 12.6 points per game. She is UTC’s top 3-point shooter and near perfect from the free throw line. Four different players have led the Mocs in scoring. Whitaker averages a team-high .489 from the field.
Defense: Freshman Eboni Williams leads the Mocs in rebounding with 58 on the year, averaging 4.5 per game. She has a team-high 3.4 defensive boards while fellow freshman Abbey Williams has a UTC-best 1.2 offensive rebounds per game. Molly Melton leads the Mocs with 2.2 steals per game despite missing three this season. Arianne Whitaker has a team-high 16 blocked shots through 10 games played.
Head coach Katie Burrows is in her first season leading Chattanooga. She was an assistant for UTC for eight seasons and helped lead UTC to four consecutive SoCon regular season and tournament titles as a player at Chattanooga from 2001-04.
Probable starters for MTSU: Alex Johnson, F,6-0, Sr.; A’Queen Hayes, G, 5-8, Sr; Taylor Sutton, G, 5-4, Fr.; Jess Louro, G, 5-10, Sr.; Alexis Whittington, G, 5-11, Fr.
The Blue Raiders have won six of their last seven games and started the season with back-to-back wins over Vanderbilt and Furman. They have fallen to Tennessee Tech, Belmont and Kentucky.
Offense: Three players are averaging double figures for MTSU. Alex Johnson is shooting 65.9 percent and averages a team-best 14.8 points per game. A’Queen Hayes is second on the team in scoring with 14.5 points per game and has a team-high 37 assists. Taylor Sutton has 22 from the 3-point line and is third on the team with 11.5 points per game.
Defense: MTSU is outrebounding opponents by 5.5 boards per game. A’Queen Hayes has a team-best 6.5 boards per game and Jess Louro is second on the team on the boards with 6.0 rebounds per game and has a team-best 16 steals.
Head coach Rick Insell is in his 14th season at Middle Tennessee and has a career-record of 325-113 over that time. He has led the Blue Raiders to nine NCAA Tournament appearances, four WNITs and had five All-Americans and four WNBA draft picks.