JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – The Southern Conference portion of the women’s basketball season starts this week with much intrigue, as ETSU women’s basketball hosts its most classic rival – Chattanooga – inside Brooks Gym on Thursday, Jan. 5 at 7 p.m.
The Bucs and Mocs will meet for the 92nd time on Thursday — the most frequent rivalry in ETSU’s history.
ABOUT THE BUCS
- ETSU enters with a 13-3 overall record — the best non-conference finish in the program’s modern era.
- The Southern Conference began sponsoring a women’s basketball championship in 1983-84. In that first season, ETSU had 11 non-conference wins, which marked the school record for non-conference wins for 39 years. ETSU broke that this season with 13.
- Last time out, the Bucs defeated Converse College in a New Year’s Eve special inside Brooks Gym with an 82-35 victory. The 47-point win margin marked the second-largest win of the season.
- ETSU is ranked in the College insider Women’s Mid-Major Top-25 Poll for the second straight week, moving up two spots to No. 20 yesterday. Two weeks ago, the Bucs began receiving votes before sliding into the No. 22 spot last Tuesday.
- Prior to this season, ETSU’s last ranking in the College Insider Women’s Mid-Major Top-25 came in 2010 at No. 16. The team started 2-0 that season, including a win over Chattanooga.
- As of this week, the Bucs are nationally-ranked in multiple categories among NCAA Division I teams, including the 10th ranked scoring defense in the country with 52.9 points allowed per game.
- ETSU is also ranked in the national Top 50 in offensive rebounding (10th – 16.1 per game), rebounding margin (21st – +10.0), rebounds per game (29th – 42.8), field goal percentage defense (33rd – 35.5 percent) and winning percentage (43rd – 81.2 percent).
- The Bucs lead the SoCon in overall wins, scoring defense, scoring margin, defensive field goal percentage and rebounding margin. ETSU is also the only SoCon team to win at least one neutral site game this season, winning three.
- ETSU has lost three games this season. After all three losses, the Bucs went on to enjoy three separate streaks involving four or more wins. The most recent loss to Bowling Green brought about a five-game win streak with wins over Charleston Southern, UNC Asheville, Longwood, Mount St. Mary’s and Converse College.
- A win tomorrow would tie the longest win streak since flipping the calendar in 2017-18 with six straight wins. That streak started Dec. 29, 2017 with a win over North Greenville and ended with five straight conference wins to start the 2018 portion of the season.
- ETSU also ranks 19th nationally in offensive rebounding at 15.9 boards per game.
- Graduate guard Jiselle Thomas (Norwalk, Ohio) leads the Bucs with 14.2 points per game. She scored her 1,000th career point in the season opener against No. 1 South Carolina and ranks among the top six scorers in the SoCon this season.
- Sophomore guard Nevaeh Brown (Charlotte, N.C.) is averaging 10.3 PPG and has started the last four games. She led the team off the bench in her first 11 games.
- ETSU’s two-headed monster on the boards has been true freshman Journee McDaniel (New Bern, N.C.) and graduate Jayla Ruffus-Milner (North Hills, Calif.). McDaniel and Ruffus-Milner are ranked among the top seven in rebounding with over seven rebounds per contest, with Ruffus-Milner leading in fourth at 7.4 RPG.
- Ruffus-Milner scored her 400th career point against Bowling Green and grabbed her 400th career rebound against UNC Asheville. She also achieved her first double-double of the season against Mount St. Mary’s with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
- The Blue and Gold are led by first year Coach Brenda Mock Brown, who took over in August. Notorious for her turnaround at UNC Asheville, Coach Mock has already doubled last year’s win total for ETSU with a full conference schedule still to play.
- ETSU has a 6-1 record at home this season and is 3-0 in Thursday games.
- The Bucs finished the month of December with a 7-1 record.
- In all 13 wins, ETSU has led at halftime and has won the rebounding battle. ETSU has also held opponents to under 60 points and under 40 percent shooting in 12 of the 13 wins.
- This season, ETSU will seek its first winning campaign and postseason appearance since 2018, where the team finished 20-13 overall, 11-3 in the SoCon and with an appearance in the Women’s National Invitational Tournament (WNIT). ETSU has made three NCAA tournament appearances all-time (2008, 2009, 2010) and four WNIT appearances (1995, 2006, 2014, 2018).
ABOUT THE MOCS
- Chattanooga enters conference play with an 8-7 overall record.
- ETSU and Chattanooga are the only two teams in the SoCon to allow below 62.0 PPG.
- Chattanooga is just three points per game behind ETSU offensively at 58.4 PPG.
- Much like ETSU, Chattanooga has leaned on strong defensive play all season. Both teams have ranked atop the SoCon in points allowed per game virtually all season and currently rank in the top 15 nationally. Chattanooga has the 14th ranked defense with 53.7 PPG allowed.
- Chattanooga leads the league in rebounding defense, allowing just 30.7 RPG, while ranking second in free throw percentage (76.6 percent) and third in scoring margin (+4.7).
- The Mocs have dropped their last two games with losses to Marshall (60-56) and Jacksonville State (59-51) to close non-conference play.
- Jacksonville State is one of two common opponents between the Mocs and Bucs. The other is UNC Asheville, which both teams beat by a 12-point margin. ETSU defeated Jacksonville State in a 55-54 thriller in Johnson City.
- Chattanooga has a 4-2 record at home and a 4-5 record in road games. Two of the last three wins have come on the road with victories at North Alabama and Ohio.
- The Mocs are led in scoring by senior guard Yazz Wazeerud-Din with 15.8 PPG — ranking fourth in the SoCon.
- Freshman forward Raven Thompson has wasted no time impacting the Mocs from the post, ranking ninth in the league in scoring at 13.3 PPG while ranking third in rebounding at 7.9 RPG. She also ranks third in field goal percentage at 54.5 percent from the floor (66-121).
- Both Wazeerud-Din and Thompson are among the league’s Top 10 in free throw shooting at roughly 78 percent each.
- Senior forward Abbey Cornelius is one of two SoCon players to enter league play with over a block per game at 1.2 with 18 blocked shots in 15 games. Cornelius was Chattanooga’s lone preseason all-conference selection this year.
- The Mocs are led by first year head coach Shawn Poppie, who came to Chattanooga after six seasons as an assistant at Virginia Tech and three years prior to that as an assistant at Furman. Poppie played collegiately at Limestone and graduated in 2007.
SERIES HISTORY
- Chattanooga owns a 66-25 advantage in the all-time series through 91 meetings.
- Since 1979, the in-state foes have met at least once every year except 2006 and 2014.
- ETSU has won four of the last 10 meetings — dating back to 2018.
- The two rivals split last year’s meetings with the road team winning each time.
- The last meeting happened in Chattanooga, as ETSU pulled out a 65-62 victory inside McKenzie Arena in front of over 1,100 fans on Feb. 12, 2022.
- Four current Bucs started in that 2022 win with sophomores Courtney Moore (Gainesville, Fla.) and Jakhyia Davis (Knoxville, Tenn.) combining for 30 points — 15 apiece. Fellow sophomore Sarah Thompson (Gate City, Va.) added eight points in the win.
- Of ETSU’s 25 wins in the series, 14 have come at home in Johnson City.
