Lady Mocs overcome slow start to win SoCon opener - WRCBtv.com | Chattanooga News, Weather & Sports

GREENSBORO, N.C. (WRCB/UTC) -- Whitney Hood poured in 19 points to help the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team overcome a 15-point first-half deficit in a 63-46 win at UNC-Greensboro on Thursday night.

The Lady Mocs started off slow in their Southern Conference opener, falling behind 20-5 in the first six minutes, but rallied to outscore the host Spartans 58-26 over the remainder of the game.

The Lady Mocs even their record at 3-3 and are 1-0 in league play. UNC drops to 1-4 overall and 0-1 in SoCon action.

Hood added eight rebounds to her season-high point total, while Kayla Christopher added 17 points and five boards and six assists. Sophomore Alex Black, who started the second half at point, had a season-high 10 points with two steals. Taylor Hall pulled down a career-best 12 rebounds with six points and Kylie Lambert had seven points and 11 rebounds.

UNCG started the game shooting 9-of-11 while the Lady Mocs were 2-of-7 from the field and had four turnovers to get out to its largest lead of the game, 20-5 at the 14:22 mark. However, the Spartans would miss their next nine attempts and turn the ball over twice, while still maintaining a 20-10 lead over the next five minutes.

Chattanooga, behind Hood and Christopher, would pull to within two points and trail UNCG 24-22 at intermission.

In the second half, the Lady Mocs picked up where they left off in the first. Hall drained a 3-pointer and junior Lambert followed it up with a jumper to tie the game for the first time since the 19:02 mark of the first half at 28-28 with 18:17 to play. She was fouled on the play and converted the 3-point play to give Chattanooga its first lead of the game and the Lady Mocs would not trail again.

Chattanooga built its lead to 41-33 with 12:23 to play, but the Spartans cut it in half less than two minutes later to trail UTC 41-37 with 10:35 to play.

From there it would be all Chattanooga as the Lady Mocs outpaced UNCG 22-9 over the final 8:52 of the game and claim the win in the SoCon opener.

Chattanooga will close out a three-week road odyssey Saturday evening at Elon with a 7 p.m. start.

Information provided by UTC Sports Information and GoMocs.com.