GREENSBORO, N.C. – UNCG women's basketball continues its road trip this weekend as the Spartans will head to Chattanooga, Tenn. for a Southern Conference matchup with the league-leading Chattanooga Mocs. UNCG enters with a 10-10 overall record and are 1-4 in Southern Conference action. Chattanooga sports a 10-8 record, and 4-0 in SoCon play.
Saturday's game will take place in The McKenzie Arena in Chattanooga at 2:00 p.m. If unable to make the trip, fans can follow along with Saturday's action in a variety of ways. There will be live stats available via gomocs.com, along with an audio stream of the action. The game will also be broadcasted on ESPN3. Links for all of these services are on the UNCG women's basketball schedule page.
The Spartans enter having dropped a hard-fought matchup with the ETSU Buccaneers Thursday evening. UNCG fell 60-52 to the Bucs, but had a pair of players score in double figures. Shanese Harris (Chesapeake, Va./Western Branch) led the team with 13 points and Nadine Soliman (Cairo, Egypt/Mokattam Language School) added 10. Seniors Bailey Williams (Harrisonburg, Va./Spotswood) and India Timpton (Charlotte, N.C./Myers Park) dished out five assists apiece.
UNCG has one of the top rebounding teams in the league. The Blue and Gold outrebound their opponents by an average of 5.1 boards per game. UNCG also records an average of 3.0 blocks per game and holds opponents to a .374 shooting percentage, second best in the league. UNCG is one of only three teams to have a positive rebounding margin in SoCon action, and it averages 3.6 blocks per game in SoCon games.
Harris has been the Spartans' leading scorer the last two games. She scored 14 points in a 64-40 victory over Samford a week ago, and added 13 in the loss to ETSU. Soliman leads the team with an average of 17.4 points per game in her rookie campaign. Fellow freshman Te'ja Twitty (Rutherfordton, N.C./Rutherfordton-Spindale Central) adds 10.0 points per game and leads the team with 7.5 rebounds per game. Her rebounds per game average is fourth in the league.
Chattanooga enters having played one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the league. The Mocs played five top 25 ranked teams and hosted No. 19 Florida, No. 23 Indiana and No. 2 Notre Dame. The Mocs dropped those three matchups, but have won their last five-straight by an average of 15.6 points. In its last time out, Chattanooga defeated Western Carolina 67-46 inside McKenzie Arena.
Chattanooga scores an average of 69.5 points per game in Southern Conference play while limiting conference opponents to 52.0 points per contest, both best in the league. Its +17.5 average scoring margin doubles up the next closest scoring margin in the league as Furman outscores opponents by 8.8 points. The Mocs limit opponents to 33-percent shooting from the field, and score on 50-percent of its shots.
Jasmine Joyner, the preseason SoCon Player of the Year, leads a balanced Moc offense. Joyner scores 11.6 points per game, with Queen Alford, Lakelyn Bouldin and Chelsey Shumpert all averaging over 10 points per game. Joyner leads the league, and is 44th in the country with 9.6 rebounds per game.
UNCG and Chattanooga tip off at 2:00 p.m. Saturday inside McKenzie Arena in Chattanooga, Tenn.
-UNCG-
