Chattanooga’s women’s basketball team will travel to Birmingham on Thursday to face Samford in their final week of the regular season. The Mocs are aiming for a season sweep of the Bulldogs and hope to secure at least a share of the Southern Conference (SoCon) Regular Season Championship with a win.
The game is scheduled for February 26 at Pete Hanna Center, starting at 4:00 p.m. CT. Fans can access live stats, video streaming via ESPN+, and audio streaming through WFLI and the Varsity Network on GoMocs.com.
In their previous meeting on February 1, Chattanooga defeated Samford 61-40, with a strong fourth quarter performance outscoring Samford 17-5. One player made six three-pointers, tying a McKenzie Arena record for most threes by a Moc in a single game and finished with 20 points and seven rebounds.
Since the rivalry began in 1998, Chattanooga leads the series against Samford 32-12 overall and is 12-7 when playing away at Samford. The Mocs have won five of the last six matchups, except for one loss last year in Birmingham. Thursday’s contest marks their 45th meeting.
In their recent Senior Day game against UNCG, Chattanooga overcame a 12-point deficit with a late 10-0 run that included two three-pointers from another key player. The Mocs secured a narrow victory, finishing at 56-54.
Elisaldez was named SoCon Player of the Week on Tuesday for the second time this season and fourth time in her career after averaging 19.5 points, four rebounds, and 4.5 assists per game during wins over Western Carolina University (WCU) and UNCG.
A win against Samford would guarantee Chattanooga at least a share of the conference title. If they also win their final regular season game against Mercer on Saturday, they will be outright champions. Currently, Wofford sits half a game behind UTC in second place with one remaining fixture at Furman.
Elisaldez leads SoCon in both scoring (16 points per game) and assists (5.2 per game), while Corbitt averages 14.6 points (fourth in SoCon) and eight rebounds (third). Corbitt has received SoCon Player of the Week honors four times this season and has scored more than thirty points twice.
Owona has contributed off the bench recently by making seven out of thirteen three-point attempts over Chattanooga’s last five games—a shooting rate of fifty-four percent.
Defensively, Chattanooga leads SoCon teams by allowing just over fifty-one points per league game. In their recent win over Western Carolina, they held opponents to only thirty-six points.
Samford enters Thursday’s matchup having won four out of its last five games since losing to Chattanooga earlier this month. At home this season, Samford holds a record of seven wins and three losses.
Kaylee Yarbrough leads Samford with an average of twelve points per game but has been limited offensively in her last two outings. Briana Rivera is notable nationally for leading all players in total three-pointers made (ninety-eight) and threes per game (3.38). She has hit four or more threes in five of her past six games—including seven against Western Carolina—while Sierra Goldbolt has reached double figures in each of her last three appearances.
As a team, Samford ranks first among SoCon schools for three-point field goal percentage during conference play at thirty-five percent as well as assists per league contest with an average of eleven point six.
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