Mocs Hold ETSU to 20 Points in Final Three Quarters, Win Seventh Straight
Chattanooga Rolls to Seventh Straight Win over ETSU
Rivalry action in the Southern Conference today, as the Chattanooga Mocs Women’s Basketball team traveled to Johnson City, TN to meet the ETSU Buccaneers. The Mocs came in on a six game winning streak this season, and a six game winning streak in this series. Today marked the seventh consecutive win for both occasions, as the Mocs defeated ETSU 53-41 to improve to 11-5, 3-0 in the SoCon.
Chattanooga has been powered mostly by Caia Elisaldez and Gianna Corbitt this season. Elisaldez came in averaging 14.5 ppg, which is third in the SoCon, and Corbitt was right behind her at 14.3 ppg, fifth in the SoCon. Both are great players in more categories than scoring, as they facilitate and rebound with the best of them in the conference.
Corbitt shot out of the gate with the first five points for the Mocs, and the Buccaneers fired back with 15 unanswered as they were able to get good ball movement and penetration from Meaghan Downing. ETSU was effective in moving it around, and Lucy Hood was able to pop a couple of threes early on along with Paige Lyons.
The Mocs were having early trouble with ETSU’s tight defense and Downing’s presence on the boards. She came into today’s game third in the conference with 7.6 rebounds per game, and the Bucs were third as a team in the conference with 38.1 rpg.
ETSU would complete a 21-8 run to end the first quarter up 21-13. Then Chattanooga would begin to match ETSU’s intensity in the paint in the second quarter, and Caia Elisaldez began to go to work after a quiet first quarter.
Meaghan Downing picked up an early second foul in the quarter to send her to the bench, and Chattanooga began penetrating and getting to the rim, opening up with a 9-0 run to force an ETSU timeout with 6:29 to go in the half.
Meaghan Downing re-entered and she would find Jaidyn Harper on a nice cut to the basket to end the 9-0 run. The Mocs defense then clamped down and kept ETSU without a field goal for the last 4:43 of the second quarter.
Izzy McPherson, who owned the last couple of minutes with six points and provided great help on defense, helped the Mocs to a 28-25 halftime lead. McPherson was nice off the bench today, giving the Mocs some of the best production in the game, and became huge after Kalifa Ford went down and exited the game. She ended the day with 11 points, four rebounds, and two blocks.
After the game, I caught up with McPherson for a quick comment on the day. Her mindset is all about the team, and what she can do to help.
“My mindset recently has just been doing whatever I can to help my team, if the ball’s not going in, just doing something on defense, or getting offensive rebounds, anything like that. So yeah, that was just my mindset going into the 2nd quarter,” said McPherson.
Chattanooga continued with what worked in the latter part of the first half and stifled ETSU in the third quarter. Meaghan Downing had to sit for a few minutes after picking up her third foul early, and the Mocs were able to continue their success in the paint and on the boards to increase their lead.
That was a big thing for the Mocs, as the Bucs’ leading rebounder was not able to stay in the game consistently, and when she was in, her aggressiveness was affected due to foul trouble.
“Yeah, I mean, it was a big deal, for sure. Like, she’s a big presence on offense and defense, so I think it was good that we were attacking her and just getting her on the bench helped us out a lot, for sure,” said McPherson.
The Buccaneers couldn’t buy a bucket for the longest and went on a 5:13 scoring drought in the quarter, but Anala Nelson took matters into her hands and attacked the rim. Nelson accounted for all of ETSU’s nine points in the quarter, and finished the day as ETSU’s leading scorer with 11 points in 28 minutes.
Frode Flos van der Schans brought some valuable minutes and production in the paint late. She was able to work the post and get a couple of layups, and you could see Downing being affected by her foul trouble because the intensity wasn’t there as much on the defensive end. The Mocs were able to win paint production today, outscoring ETSU 28-18 in that category, and a slight rebounding edge of 41-38.
Chattanooga was able to open it up in the fourth and jumped out to a commanding 47-34 lead just minutes into the quarter. Caia Elisaldez continued to get to the rim, draw contact, and score. Elisaldez and Gianna Corbitt were mainstays on the floor for the Mocs today as they have been this season.
Caia finished with 13 points, six rebounds, and two steals in 39 minutes of play. Her ability to drive and force the issue is what intrigues me about her game. She plays with authority and intent to score at the rim or get to the line, and that is what some may call old school basketball.
Gianna Corbitt finished with a double-double of 13 points, 12 rebounds, three steals, and one block in 33 minutes. Corbitt cleaned the glass, and gave the Mocs plenty of second chances with seven offensive rebounds, and on the defensive rebound side, Ava Card was able to bring down seven boards. Card was able to establish her presence with eight points, seven rebounds, and one steal in 32 minutes.
The Mocs were able to make early adjustments and win the game pretty comfortably. After ETSU scored 21 points in the opening quarter, they were only able to score 20 more throughout the rest of the game. That is credited to Chattanooga’s ability to shut down the Bucs and limit their chances.
“Our defense is what’s carrying us. Coach D, all of our coaches are huge defensive coaches. They always say defense wins games. I mean, you hear every coach say that, but I think our coaches take that so deeply and they make sure that we know, like, we’re not just going to roll the balls out and go win a game. We need to fight for it. We need to be gritty. And that came from defense,” said Caia Elisaldez after the game.
After the game, I spoke with Chattanooga Head Coach Deandra Schirmer and received a statement on today’s game.
“I think that a lot of credit goes to ETSU. They came prepared. You know, we both had a week since it was our bye week to be ready to go. They came prepared with a great game plan and put 21 points on us to start out in the 1st quarter, and then I’m really proud of our defensive effort that after that 21 point 1st quarter, we were able to hold them to 20 points for the remainder of the game in the final three quarters,” said Schirmer.
“So just really being able to adjust to whatever teams are being able to throw at us, I think that our group has a lot of diversity and we can go with a lot of different lineups. We can look at a lot of different matchups, and we showcased that tonight. We had players that stepped up huge. I thought Izzy had big minutes. I thought Flo had big scores. Fallon had big stuff. Ava hit a big shot at the end, but it’s any given day, it’s gonna be anybody’s number called. So I really feel proud of our group for showing up and making sure that we got the win on the road, which is a tough thing to do.”
The Mocs will next head to Greensboro, NC for a meeting with the UNCG Spartans on Thursday, January 22 at 6:00 PM ET.
Photos from the game are below. Photo Credit: Charles Mays/Mays Sports Media
