The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team used a 14-point first quarter advantage to down UT Martin 80-60 Saturday night at the Elam Center. The Mocs improve to 4-6 overall and the Skyhawks are 2-6 on the year.
Chattanooga held UTM to just five first quarter points to lead 19-5 after the first 10 minutes. UT Martin made it 6-5 in favor of the Mocs with 3:45 to go in the opening frame but would see another point for the next 6:14 as Chattanooga went on an 18-0 run to make it 24-5 with 7:31 to play in the second.
UTM responded with an 8-2 run to make it 26-13, but that’s as close as they would get the remainder of the half.
Chattanooga shot 70 percent in the second quarter (7-10) and led 37-24 at halftime.
The Mocs opened its lead in the third quarter and led by as much as 19 points several times in the final half.
Freshman Lakelyn Bouldin (Spencer, Tenn.) scored a career-high 18 points and led four players in double figures for the Mocs. She was 5-of-8 from beyond the arc and had eight rebounds.
Senior Jasmine Joyner (Southaven, Miss.) just missed a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds while adding in six blocked shots. She now has 1,009 career points and becomes the 27th player in Chattanooga history to top the 1,000-point mark.
Junior Chelsey Shumpert (Paducah, Ky.) had 16 points and a season-best six assists on the night while junior Keiana Gilbert (Pulaski, Tenn.) scored 10 fourth quarter points for 17 overall with nine rebounds, six assists and four blocked shots.
Chattanooga was 27-49 from the field for its best field goal shooting percentage of the season at 55.1 percent. The Mocs’ first three shots in the game were all from long range leading UTC to a 10-of-22 effort, its best of the season.
In the paint, the Mocs edged the Skyhawks 30-26 and outscored UTM 12-4 on fast break points. Both had 16 points off turnovers and UT Martin held a slight advantage on second chance points 8-2. UTC won the rebounding battle, 27-32 and dished out a season-high 19 assists.
Kendall Spray paced the Skyhawks with 16 points, making 4-of-9 from beyond the arc. Myah Taylor added 12 points and Ashton Feldhaus had a team-high eight rebounds. UT Martin shot just 35.9 percent and were 7-of-21 from beyond the arc.
Chattanooga returns to the Roundhouse Monday night to host Stetson. The game is set to tip at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are available at GoMocs.com.