ASHEVILLE, N.C. — In two years as a head coach, Shawn Poppie has built his University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball program on toughness.
So it's fitting that UTC's point guard personified that image Friday.
There's very little of Addie Porter's impact on a game that can be defined statistically. The junior is shooting just a hair under 30% from both the field and from 3-point range for the season. She has per-game averages of just 5.3 points and 2.1 assists, which by point guard standards is just OK.
But to judge her impact by stats is basically just admitting you haven't watched her.
Instead, judge Porter by her willingness to dive for any — and every — loose ball. Judge her by the fact that she's averaging 5.5 rebounds per game at 5-foot-4, and that it could be considered a down year in that regard after she averaged 6.9 in 2022-23.
Judge her by the fact that in the most important game of the season to this point, Porter went out and played 32 minutes on an ankle she injured in Thursday's Southern Conference tournament quarterfinal win over Western Carolina. That left her availability in doubt for Friday's semifinal against Mercer, and while she played against the Bears, it's not about what she did on offense (she never took a shot and was 2-for-6 at the foul line) but that she did much of anything at all.
This was about toughness — and gritting out 32 minutes, grabbing seven rebounds and handing out a pair of assists with no turnovers sure felt like that.
After Friday's 66-55 win at Harrah's Cherokee Center, Porter described the previous 24 hours as a lot of "trying to get the motion back in my foot to be game ready and get ice on it. Lots of texts and calls and prayers and everybody asking how I'm doing and seeing if I'm OK, so that's been a lot to me.
"I know my teammates and Coach Poppie always have my back in everything I do, so I wasn't worried about that, just trying to get the foot where it can be good to go, and today it was good."
Poppie got emotional at the postgame news conference while speaking about Porter's contributions, which helped propel the top-seeded Mocs (27-4) to their second consecutive SoCon championship game. They beat Wofford 63-53 in last year's final to send the program back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2017, and now they'll try to make it two March Madness journeys in a row.
Their opponent at noon Sunday is second-seeded UNC Greensboro (21-10), the only SoCon team to beat UTC in the regular season.
"I've never been as proud of a kid to fight through what she fought through to play for us today," Poppie said of Porter on Friday. "You guys look back at the pictures: I thought there was no way, it was impossible (for her to play). We prepared not to have her, but she's the heart and soul of who we are.
"I call her my ride or die for a reason, and today, we rode with her. She's why we're here."
The Mocs got a career-high 33 points from senior Jada Guinn and 13 points and 13 rebounds from sophomore Raven Thompson, who were on stage Friday with Poppie and Porter to answer questions. Each of the scoring stars was nodding in agreement with Poppie's assessment of Porter.
"We play for one another," Thompson said. "No matter if a team goes on a run, I feel like we just get closer and tighter, and we piggyback off each other."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.