The Chattanooga Mocs Women's Basketball team went on a magical run through the Southern Conference Tournament defeating Furman and ETSU with ease before slaying their season-long dragon in the Terriers of Wofford on Sunday in the Championship Game.
For the first time since 2017, the Mocs will be going dancing in the first year of head coach Shawn Poppie's tenure leading UTC.
"I was looking into their eyes during a timeout, and you could really start to see a true belief," Poppie said, "The one team all year I did not see that was against Wofford in the regular season. We kind of just went away from who we were and what got us to where we had gotten to both times, we played them."
"But when we played yesterday (Sunday), I think we got 17-9 early on and we're in a timeout and they're looking at me like, we're good coach, we're good... When you get a belief in a team and they're looking back at you like we're good, it gives you a really good feeling as a coach."
It was the belief in themselves, the belief in each other, and the belief in all the hard work that they put in that allowed them to overcome some early adversity and strike back in a big way during the second quarter to get back in the ballgame.
"Nerves got the best of us early on offensively but that seems kind of natural, you know? We're at a Championship game."
During that second quarter, the Mocs outscored the Terriers by 10, 22-12 to take a two-point lead into the halftime locker room. By the time the third quarter rolled around, the nerves had dissipated and the belief that they were good enough to finally beat Wofford set in... Chattanooga bested them 18-7 and never looked back as they won 63-53.
It was a well-rounded effort by UTC as they received 19 points and nine rebounds from the SoCon Tournament MVP, freshman Raven Thompson, 16 points from Yazz Wazeeerud-Din, and a double-double from their sophomore point guard Addie Grace Porter (13 points and 10 rebounds).
If you've ever gotten the privilege to watch Shawn Poppie coach a basketball game, you'll be able to tell, he's not short on energy and it's genuinely who he is but he feels as though his players feed off of it.
"You come to practice tomorrow it'll be the same thing, it's nothing that's on for anything besides trying to give my best for this group... I do think this team specifically they look over and lean on it... This group needs someone to show them what energy looks like; I think every play."
The energy infusion has worked and helped propel this team to the NCAA Tournament.
The Mocs will find out where they're headed and who they'll face this coming Sunday at 8 p.m. EST during a live selection show that'll air on ESPN. From there, the tournament will kick-off on Wednesday and Thursday with the First Four games that'll serve as play-in games (hopefully UTC will avoid that).
If you'd like to hear the full conversation with Shawn Poppie in studio from The Word With G on ESPN Chattanooga, click here.