UTC's Lady Mocs pound Lady Paladins

Friday, January 1, 1904

photo Whitney Hood of UTC, right, battles Furman's Brittany Hodges for a rebound Sunday at the McKenzie Arena.

There is no official record for the last time two Lady Mocs recorded a double-double in the same game.

It's assumed that Shanara Hollinquest and a teammate accomplished the feat a few years ago.

So mark down Sunday as a part of history.

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga pummeled Furman 71-53 on Sunday with a pair of post players each recording a double-double.

Senior Whitney Hood scored 21 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, while sophomore teammate Taylor Hall cored 10 points and grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds. Furman forward Brittany Hodges led the Lady Paladins with 14 points.

"I just think that we're pretty good at feeding off each other," said Hall, who notched her third double-double of the season. "We're pretty good at inter-changing."

The victory combined with Davidson's win over Appalachian State leaves UTC (12-4, 7-0 SoCon) as the only undefeated SoCon team. The Lady Mocs have 13 more SoCon games before the tournament beginning Wednesday with Samford.

"It's nice, no doubt," coach Wes Moore said. "With what we have ahead of us, it's no time to take a deep breath and enjoy it."

But Moore said he might take a few minutes Sunday night to catch up on some football even though his beloved Cowboys are doing the same thing as him -- watching the playoffs.

But he had reviewing the Lady Mocs' game first on his agenda.

UTC struggled offensively in the first half and trailed for the first 16 minutes until Hood hit two free throws for a 23-22 lead. Furman's Alexis Peterson scored on a post move with one tick to tock before halftime that pulled the Paladins (9-8, 5-3) even with UTC at 27-all. The Lady Mocs shot 32.1 percent in the first half and hit only one 3-pointer.

"We seem to start out slow and have to climb back," Moore said. "I was proud of the kids and how they fought back there toward the end of the half. We were able to go in and start a new ball game."

They dominated the second half. They pulled down almost every loose rebounds and finished the game with 21 more than Furman.

A 12-3 run capped by a transition 3-pointer from Kayla Christopher -- who scored 18 points -- gave UTC a 45-35 lead and forced Furman to call time out. The Lady Mocs led by at least nine points for the final 12 minutes.

"In the first half, we were off," Hood said. "We see how they're playing and then we had to adjust."

The adjustments worked doubly well for Hall and Hood.