Davidson College beats UTC Lady Mocs by 4

Friday, January 1, 1904

photo Wes Moore
Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

DAVIDSON, N.C. -- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team's toughest road swing of the season proved to be just that.

Davidson beat UTC 56-52 on Monday night at Belk Arena to send the Lady Mocs back to Chattanooga with a second straight defeat. Appalachian State beat them Saturday.

The Lady Mocs (13-6, 8-2) were undefeated in Southern Conference play, including a 4-0 record on the road, before the two-game stretch against a pair of title contenders.

"We knew this was going to be our toughest road trip," coach Wes Moore said. "When you go on the road and give up 56 points, you feel like you ought to win. We did a nice job defensively, but we did give up too many offensive rebounds."

Davidson outrebounded UTC 45-40 and had a 16-5 advantage in second-chance points.

Whitney Hood, who scored UTC's first eight points, led all scorers with 18, to go along with seven rebounds. Ka'Vonne Towns had a career-high eight points and four assists.

Appalachian State beat Samford on Monday to move into first place with an 8-1 record in SoCon play. UTC and Davidson (12-7, 8-2) are tied for second.

UTC led 35-33 with 12:21 to play following a Faith Dupree jumper, but a quick 8-0 run by Davidson gave the Wildcats a lead they wouldn't relinquish.

The Lady Mocs cut the deficit to three a couple of times in the closing minutes. The last came with two Tenisha Townsend free throws that made it 55-52 with 39.5 seconds left.

However, UTC had only three team fouls at that point and the Wildcats were able to burn some clock as UTC had to foul multiple times to send them to the free-throw line.

Katrin Chiemeka hit one of two free throws with 13.4 seconds left to make it a two-possession game and secure the Davidson win. Sophia Aleksandravicius led the Wildcats with 15 points and 10 rebounds.

The Lady Mocs host UNC Greensboro on Saturday.