CHATTANOOGA — Chattanooga women’s basketball was able to get off to its best start since 2013-14 on Saturday following a 75-62 win for the Mocs over UVA Wise at McKenzie Arena.
Despite some miscues over the course of the game, the Mocs (4-1, 0-0 SoCon) put together another solid shooting performance against the Cavaliers (1-2, 0-0 SAC) by shooting 47.1 percent to help guide UTC past the Cavs. The 4-1 start for the Mocs marks the best start to a season for Chattanooga women’s basketball since 2013-14, when UTC would start the year 6-1 before eventually finishing 29-4 as SoCon Regular Season and Tournament champions.
“First and foremost, UVA Wise, hats off to them. They competed their tails off,” head coach Shawn Poppie said. “That should be a proud locker room over there. I’m not into moral victories, but I think they should leave here proud of themselves. They gave us a lot of stuff. Exposed a lot from us. Not very pleased with anything really, to be honest with you, but maybe it’s a learning point because we practiced just how we played today. Yesterday our shoot around looked just like you saw and we came out here, and I guess we are who we have been. So very disappointing, following you know, the Tennessee Tech game for sure.”
UTC started the day slow out of the gates, as the Cavaliers caused fits for the Mocs by building up a 9-3 lead on Chattanooga over the opening 3:20 of action. The Mocs would clap back in the latter half of the quarter, relying heavily upon the scoring of Raven Thompson and Jada Guinn to help UTC end the first on a 16-5 scoring run to give the Mocs the lead heading into the second.
The Mocs never relinquished that lead back to the Cavs, and heading into halftime UTC held a 39-27 advantage over the Cavaliers. Chattanooga continued to turn up the heat, building up as much of a lead as 22 points on UVA Wise. Despite this, the Cavs wouldn’t go quietly despite trailing 57-42 at the end of three.
Relying on the scoring of Katlin Burger, who would finish the game with 21 points for the Cavs, UVA Wise got as close as 10 points from the Mocs in the fourth quarter before UTC was finally able to put them away for good. While it wasn’t a perfect game out of the Mocs squad, it was a 75-62 victory for Coach Poppie’s bunch.
Jada Guinn would finish as the team’s leading scorer with 17 points while Raven Thompson (16) and Addie Grace Porter (13) trailed closely behind her. Both Guinn and Thompson have scored 10+ points a piece in all five games of the season so far for the Mocs.
Thompson also finished as UTC’s leading rebounder with a season-high eight boards. Guinn’s three assists and season-high two blocks both served as team-highs for Chattanooga as well.
FROM THE HEAD COACH | QUOTES
On the play of Addie Grace Porter
“That was maybe the bright spot of the day. As I said in our pregame speech, I don’t lie to you. I’ll tell you the truth. We’ve lived in here the last couple of days and tried to get some confidence back in her jumpshot. She went 2-for-5 from three but I thought one of them was a heave, so 2-out-of-4, in my opinion, five or six from the line. She tried to get us going. That’s probably why we’re plus 19 while she’s out there in 32 minutes.”
On the play of Sigrun Olafsdottir
“I gotta figure that out. It’s one that you just don’t every pay attention to because she has been so solid for so long. She’s not been herself yet. I though at Tennessee Tech she was as good defensively as she’s ever been, but offensively, and it’s wild because you go look at the stat sheet on the year. She shoots 1-for-5 today from 3, but she was shooting like 49% from the three. I mean, there were a lot of positives but it just seems like there’s so many little uncharacteristic errors and then it holds her back. She misses a three today, two of them, I think, and then the next two times she touches it, she just wants to drive like no one is guarding her. We’re a work in progress.”
TOP TAKEAWAYS | NOTES
– The Mocs have now started the season 4-1, the best start for UTC under Shawn Poppie.
– The last time Chattanooga started 4-1 or better in their first five games? The 2013-14 season in which UTC started the year 5-1. The Mocs went on to go 29-4 and win the SoCon Regular Season and Tournament titles.
– Today’s game marked the first-ever meeting between Chattanooga and UVA Wise in women’s basketball.
– The Mocs have only allowed 39 points (7.8 per game) in the first quarter of their games this season.
– Chattanooga has led every single game this season at the end of the first quarter, halftime and end of the third quarter.
– Both Raven Thompson and Jada Guinn finished in double-digit scoring for the Mocs. The duo have now each scored 10+ points in every game for the Mocs this season.
– UTC shot 47.1 percent (24-for-51) from the field. The Mocs have shot above 40 percent from the floor in every game this season.
UP NEXT: DAYTONA BEACH CLASSIC
Chattanooga will now have a brief rest period before taking their talents to Daytona Beach, Florida, for the Daytona Beach Classic. The tournament is set to be hosted at the Daytona Beach Ocean Center and will pit the Mocs up against the likes of Kent State and Northern Kentucky in the days following Thanksgiving. Both games will be available to stream via FloHoops, and Larry Ward’s radio broadcast for UTC will be available on 96.1 FM/100.3 FM/1070 AM barring any other Chattanooga broadcasts that may overlap.
50 SEASONS OF CHATTANOOGA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
The 2023 season for the Chattanooga women’s basketball team marks a major landmark for the program and the university, as UTC women’s basketball officially celebrates its 50th season of competition as a university sponsored athletic program. Following the adoption of the Title IX legislation back in 1972, UTC added women’s basketball, tennis and volleyball programs to its roster of athletic teams, bringing on five decades of history and success for each of the teams. Chattanooga WBB will be putting on multiple promotions and content pieces throughout the 2023-24 season to celebrate the program’s history, culminating in the team hosting its 50th Season Celebration and Reunion during the Mocs’ February 3 matchup against Furman at McKenzie Arena.
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