UNCG falls to top-seeded Chattanooga in SoCon quarterfinal action

NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – The UNC Greensboro women’s basketball team fell to top-seeded Chattanooga, 78-33 in Southern Conference quarterfinal round action at the North Charleston Coliseum on Friday.

UNCG (7-24) was led by Gini Grimsley who has 9 points on 3-of-11 shooting from the field. The Farimont, NC native recorded one three-pointer and was 2-of-2 from the charity stripe. Ashley Ling contributed a team-high five rebounds and while Brittany Frazier tallied her 50th career rebound.

UNCG and Chattanooga were squaring off for the fifth time in Southern Conference Tournament action but for the first time before the semifinal round. The squads have also met three times in the championship game.

“We played an outstanding Chattanooga team today and they really controlled the game from beginning to end,” said coach Lynne Agee. “It has been a difficult year for our program and we’ve had a lot of younger players that have been called upon to play different roles and sometimes is has worked and sometimes it didn’t and today we just didn’t have anything working.”

Chattanooga (27-3) tied a Southern Conference tournament single-game record with 13 three-pointers and shot 46.8 percent from the floor on 29-of-62 shooting. The Lady Mocs were led by Shanara Hollinquest who had 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting while Jenaya Wade-Fry was the next leading scorer with 11 points.

UNCG cut into the lead a little bit in the second half and was able to get a little help on the offensive side of things with two buckets from freshman Monique Floyd and Kendra Smith in the opening minutes of the second half. The Lady Mocs outside shooting proficiency was too much for the Spartans as three triples pulled the lead to 59-23 as Chattanooga moved into the semifinals with the win.

The teams started out matching each other bucket for bucket early in the game but it was Chattanooga that clawed out to a 10-7 lead at the 13:59 mark and extended their lead to 15-7 by virtue of a 7-0 run over a span of three minutes.

Erin Ogan proved to be a good substitution for the Lady Mocs as she promptly came in and shot two three-pointers and started a 13-3 run which pushed the lead to 31-13 at the 7:41 mark. 

Both squads were a little careless with the ball late in the half and it seemed as if neither team could buy a field goal but Chattanooga was able to hold UNCG without a field goal for the final six minutes of the half and went into the break with a   46-17 advantage.

The Spartans were led by Lakiah Hyson who had six points on 2-of-4 shooting from the field. Chattanooga's Shanara Hollinquest led all-scorers with 10 points while Alex Anderson had a game-high nine rebounds. UNCG was held to 23.1 shooting from the field on 6-of-26 shooting while the Lady Mocs were shooting at a 56.3 percent clip.

The Spartans finish the season with a 7-24 record and graduate four seniors. UNCG returns 11 players, including 2006-07 Southern Conference Preseason Player of the Year, Kristen Boone for the 2008-09 season.

AGATE
CHATTANOOGA 78, UNC GREENSBORO 33

UNC GREENSBORO (7-24)
GRIMSLEY,Gini 3-11 2-2 9; FLOYD,Monique 3-6 2-2 8; HYSON,Lakiah 2-6 1-1 6; DIXON,Jasmine 1-4 0-0 2; BROOKS,Kemena 0-6 2-2 2; WOMACK,Johanna 0-2 2-2 2;SMITH,Kendra 1-3 0-0 2; GIRSTAUTAITE,Agne 1-2 0-0 2; CHAMBERLAIN,Meghan 0-0 0-0 0; FRAZIER,Brittany 0-3 0-0 0; MULLINS,Ashley 0-2 0-0 0; LING,Ashley 0-6 0-0 0; BANNER,TaShama 0-1 0-0 0; WADELINGTON,S 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 11-54 9-9 33.

CHATTANOOGA (27-3)
HOLLINQUEST, Shanara 5-9 5-6 15; HAND, Brooke 4-8 0-0 11; OGAN, Erin 3-4 0-0 9; ANDERSON, Alex 4-9 1-3 9; HALL, Laura 3-8 0-0 8; WADE-FRAY, Jenaya 2-3 0-0 6; MOHR, Amy 2-5 0-0 5; MASON, LaCondra 2-3 0-0 5; DEWART, Bailey 2-4 0-0 5; SPANN, Kristen 2-3 0-0 4; HATCHETT, Tagan 0-4 1-2 1; MURRAY, Anelia 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 29-62 7-11 78.

Halftime: UTC, 46-17, 3-point goals--UNC Greensboro 2-14 (GRIMSLEY,Gini 1-5; HYSON,Lakiah 1-1; DIXON,Jasmine 0-1; BROOKS,Kemena 0-2; SMITH,Kendra 0-1; FRAZIER,Brittany0-1; MULLINS,Ashley 0-2; WADELINGTON,S 0-1), Chattanooga 13-28 (OGAN, Erin3-4; HAND, Brooke 3-7; HALL, Laura 2-4; WADE-FRAY, Jenaya 2-3; MASON, LaCondra 1-1; MOHR, Amy 1-3; DEWART, Bailey 1-3; HATCHETT, Tagan 0-3). Fouled out--UNC Greensboro-None, C hattanooga-None. Rebounds--UNC Greensboro 33 (LING,Ashley 5), Chattanooga 46 (ANDERSON, Alex 9). Assists—UNC Greensboro 4 (FLOYD,Monique 2), Chattanooga 17 (HALL, Laura 6). Total fouls--UNC Greensboro 12, Chattanooga 7. Technical fouls—UNC Greensboro-None, Chattanooga-None. A-837

- UNCG -