UTC Women’s Basketball Falls at Furman
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team fell 63-50 Saturday afternoon at Timmons Arena in Southern Conference action. The Mocs drop to 6-16 overall and 4-3 in the SoCon standings while the Paladins move to 11-9 on the year and 4-2 against the league.
Dena Jarrells led the Mocs with 14 points and was 4-of-7 from three-point range. Amaria Pugh and Sigrun Olafsdottir each chipped in nine and Abbey Cornelius had eight points and eight rebounds.
The Mocs jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead before Furman reeled off the next six. The lead changed four times in the opening period with two ties and the teams got through the first 10 minutes knotted up at 10 apiece.
The second saw more scoring from both teams with Chattanooga shooting 66.7 percent (8-12) from the field and 4-of-4 from the 3-point line. The scored was even five times in the frame with Furman’s Greyson Boone hitting a short jumper at the end of the half to give the Paladins a 33-31 lead at intermission.
Furman pulled away from the Mocs in the third period and built on it in the fourth for the 13-point win. The Mocs were just 1-of-7 from the 3-point line in the second half compared to a 60 percent (6-10) effort in the first.
“We shot the three really, really well,” Mocs head coach Katie Burrows said. “We got some good looks early. We just can’t knock those down late.”
Heading into the fourth, the Mocs trailed 50-41 but couldn’t take advantage of cold shooting from the Paladins with an icy hand of their own. Neither team snapped the nets until nearly four minutes gone with a pair of free throws by Furman.
Olafsdottir answered with a 3-pointer to make it a 52-44 game with 5:49 to play. However, the Paladins a 7-0 run for its largest lead of the game, 51-46, with 3:21 remaining.
Furman’s Tierra Hodges led all scorers with 22 points and a game-high 17 rebounds. She was 8-of-20 from the field and 6-of-6 from the line. Grace van Rij made 7-of-8 from the charity stripe and was the second Paladin in double digits with 13 points and six boards. Janay Outten had five assists while Tate Walters dished out four.
Chattanooga returns to The McKenzie Arena for a three-game home stand. Mercer will be the Mocs’ foe on Thursday, Feb. 3 with Samford to follow on Saturday. ETSU will be the Mocs’ sole game the following Saturday afternoon.
