Chattanooga women’s basketball is set to open the second half of the team’s Southern Conference season this week by hosting the league’s first and last places teams at the Roundhouse, as UNCG and Western Carolina are bound for the Scenic City this Thursday and Saturday.
The Mocs, who are fresh off a road victory at Furman, sit 10-10 on the season with a SoCon record of 5-2 that has UTC in sole possession of third place in the league standings. However, sitting just a game back from UNCG and Wofford who are now tied for first place, this week’s games offer the Mocs on opportunity to take a stab at mixing things up as the road to Asheville heats up.
Chattanooga will start its week off on Thursday, February 6, by hosting UNCG at 6 p.m.
ET. The Mocs will be donning black uniforms against the Spartans in the team’s annual Black Out Game. UTC will then welcome Western Carolina into town on Saturday, February 8 at 2 p.m. ET in what is the front half of a doubleheader with the Chattanooga men’s basketball team.
Both of this week’s games will be available to stream via ESPN+ or over the radio on WFLI 96.1 FM/100.3 FM/1070 AM or The Varsity app.
Thursday’s game against the Spartans will not only be the team’s Black Out game, in which the Mocs will be wearing special black uniforms, but it will also serve as National Girls & Women in Sports Day for Chattanooga Athletics. Fans in attendance can expect to see many familiar faces from UTC’s various women’s athletic programs as they are honored during the game. Saturday’s game, aside from being a doubleheader with men’s basketball, will have a wide variety of marketing promotions including Crawl for Cash, Scrappy’s Birthday and Kids Club Day. Additionally, the Chattanooga beach volleyball team will be having their ring ceremony for their 2024 Ohio Valley Conference Championship season.
After being picked to finish sixth in the preseason poll for the Southern Conference, the Mocs have made waves across the league by starting conference play off with a 5-2 record. UTC’s only two conference losses this season have come against the two teams currently tied for first in the league standings: Wofford and UNCG. Having won six of their last eight games, the Mocs are now hoping to hit their stride and gel as the SoCon Tournament starts to loom in just over a month’s time. The Mocs have been led by sophomore standout Caia Elisaldez, who has dazzled this season and more specifically in SoCon play. Elisaldez is currently leading the team in scoring (12.4 points/game) and assists (4.6 assists/game) and is coming off back-to-back 20+ point outings last week in South Carolina, including a career-high 24 point performance at Furman. Sigrun Olafsdottir has also been making her case for the SoCon’s Defensive Player of the Year award, as the grad student is currently averaging 2.4 steals/game to rank second in the entire conference. She most recently recorded five steals in UTC’s road win against the Paladins.
The Spartans have had a blistering start to their conference season, opening SoCon play 6-1 to give UNCG a 15-6 record entering their contest with the Mocs. UNCG has won its past four games with all but one being by double digits (a 66-58 win at Western Carolina). In fact, the Spartans have looked like a well-oiled machine aside from one game this SoCon season, a game in which UNCG lost 62-39 at Wofford. The 23-point loss was the team’s second-largest loss of the 2024-25 season, with their largest defeat coming at the hands of then-No. 14 ranked North Carolina, 80-56. UNCG’s lineup features multiple big hitters, most notably senior guard Jayde Gamble, who currently leads the Spartans in scoring (12.4 points/game), assists (2.9 assists/game) and steals (2.4 steals/game) this season. Other names to keep tabs on the Spartans include Nya Smith, Jaila Lee and Khalis Cain.
The Catamounts have experienced some tough sledding over the team’s opening seven games of SoCon action, with WCU only picking up one league win so far on the season against ETSU. That’s not to say that the last place Catamounts haven’t been competitive in each of their SoCon clashes, as only two of Western’s seven SoCon games have been decided by 10+ points, their 67-56 loss to UTC and their 66-53 loss at Wofford. Last week the Catamounts saw their hearts ripped out twice to Samford and Mercer, as first the Bulldogs were able to take down WCU in a double overtime thriller, 90-86, before the Catamounts went on to fall to the Bears 71-66 the following game. A dangerous, high-scoring team, the Catamounts are led by Georgia Tech transfer AC Carter, who is actively leading the Southern Conference in scoring (15.3 points/game) this season. Sophomore Tyja Beans also poses a threat to the Mocs, with Beans averaging 12.6 points/game alongside a team-high 8.4 rebounds/game.
The last time the Mocs took on UNCG, it was a tale of two halves for UTC as a slow start proved too much for the Mocs to come back from in the long run. Despite Chattanooga out-scoring the Spartans 35-24 in the second half, UNCG’s hot start to the game was the difference as UNCG handed UTC a 62-48 in Fleming Gymnasium in Greensboro. All-time, the Mocs are 51-15 against the Spartans including holding a record of 23-5 when hosting UNCG. As for Western Carolina, the last time the Mocs met the Catamounts marked the 100th all-time meeting between the two programs. It was a back-and-forth contest in Cullowhee, but a late spurt by the Mocs in the fourth quarter was enough for UTC to pull away comfortably, as the Mocs claimed a 67-56 win over WCU in the team’s SoCon opener. The all-time series against Western Carolina currently stands at 87-13 in favor of the Mocs, with UTC having won 30 of its last 32 meetings with WCU. Chattanooga is also 40-7 when hosting the Catamounts.