Lady Mocs Withstand Comeback To Beat Lady Vols, 67-63

Freshman Keiana Gilbert Leads Way With Career-High 27 Points

  • Thursday, November 27, 2014
  • John Hunt

Jim Foster has won more of his share of big games in his 37 years coaching women’s college basketball, first at Vanderbilt and then at Ohio State.

He can now say he’s done the same at Chattanooga after his Lady Mocs handed the Tennessee Lady Vols their first loss of the season Wednesday night at McKenzie Arena in front of 4,160 bi-partisan fans.

It may have been UTC’s finest game of the season as they improved to 4-2 with the 67-63 victory.

Keiana Gilbert, a talented freshman from Columbia, Tennessee, had a career high with 27 points and five rebounds as the Lady Mocs took control early, built a huge first-half lead and then battled for all they were worth in the closing minutes as the Lady Vols got within striking distance.

Cierra Burdick scored on a putback just inside the first minute of the game to give Tennessee a 2-0 lead, but the Lady Mocs responded with a free throw by Chelsey Shumpert at the 18:50 mark and a 3 from the wing 27 seconds later to give Chattanooga a 4-2 lead.

The Lady Mocs never trailed again.

The first half belonged to Chattanooga as the Lady Mocs connected on 14 of 24 field goal attempts for a blazing 58.3 percent while the Lady Vols couldn’t hit the ocean from the end of the pier as they were good on just nine of 29 shots for a frigid 31 percent.

Jaime Nared converted a three-point play at the 16:45 mark and teammate Burdick scored on a nice inside move as Tennessee cut that early lead to 8-7 before the first media timeout.

The Lady Vols were unable to mount any kind of offense in the first 20 minutes as Chattanooga slowly pulled away and had a comfortable 37-21 lead at the break.

The Lady Vols, who had averaged over 90 points per game in their first four wins, didn’t come close as the Lady Mocs got key stops at critical times and grabbed important rebounds when the outcome was still to be determined.

Everyone knew that the Lady Vols would make a run in the second half and they did, but the Lady Mocs never backed down and they were able to withstand Tennessee’s helter-skelter comeback at the end.

Jasmine Jones scored on a putback with 4:31 to play as Tennessee knotted the score at 57-all. 

The game was tied three more times in the next three minutes, but the Lady Vols were never able to swing the momentum with the lead.

Alicia Payne sank the second of two free throws with 52.3 seconds to give Chattanooga a 64-63 lead and Jasmine Joyner made it 65-63 with the second of two free throws at the 14.8 –second mark.

The Lady Vols had plenty of time for a last-second shot, but Jones shot an airball from the line in the final seconds and Ka’Vonne Towns grabbed the rebound and was fouled.

The senior from Lilburn, Ga.

then calmly sank both free throws for the final four-point margin.

Needless to say, Chattanooga’s Foster was satisfied with his team’s play against a pretty-good Tennessee team.

“I feel good,” he began his post-game comments.

“I think we learned something about ourselves tonight, but we challenged these girls and they responded.  We knew that we couldn’t afford a bunch of turnovers, but I thought we took care of the ball.

“We got some key rebounds and did a good job of taking advantage of our opportunities.  I thought that Destiny Bramblett played her best game of the year.  She’s played in big games before, but she made some big shots tonight,” Foster added.

Tennessee coach Holly Warlick wasn’t the happiest person in the interview room.  After all, she’s been to Chattanooga twice in her brief career as the successor to Pat Summitt and he’s lost both times.

“UTC was on top of their game as they got a lot of second-chance points.  We couldn’t stop their penetration and we missed way too many easy shots,” she said matter of factly.

“They did a good job of controlling the tempo.  I’m not sure what their game plan was, but I’m sure they did an excellent job of following it.  The fact is we weren’t very good tonight and you can’t play average against a team like that and expect to win.

“We knew coming in that it would be a tough environment, but we allowed them to build a huge lead in the first half and it’s tough to come back from a hole that deep on the road against a good team.

“Our schedule doesn’t get any easier, but we’ll find out what we’re made of.  I hope it motivates us as it surely motivated me, but I just hope we learned something from it,” Warlick concluded.

UTC’s Bramblett is a red-shirt senior who never flinched when matters got tense at the end.  She finished with a dozen points in 28 minutes and only had two turnovers while facing a pressing Tennessee defense.

“We were able to control the controllables, but I felt like we had a chip on our shoulders after the way they beat us at their place last year.  We knew that we had to keep them off the boards and that we had a good chance of winning if we could limit our turnovers,” she added.

Payne is another veteran player who withstood the pressure without batting and eye.

“This was a good win for us, but we knew it would be a game of runs.  We just had to stay focused on what we were supposed to do and I feel like we maintained our composure,” the junior from Memphis said after scoring three points in 38 minutes.

Gilbert was totally cool, calm and collected throughout the game as she finished with a  career-high after sinking 11 of 19 shots from the field.  She also had five rebounds while playing the entire game.

“This was a great experience for me.  I just had to give it my all and that’s what I did as we just tried to treat this as just another game,” she expressed.

While Gilbert had a career-high with her 27 points, Bramblett followed with a dozen.  Jones scored 21 to lead the Lady Vols while teammate Ariel Massengale was also in double figures with 11.

Tennessee won the battle of the boards by a 35-30 margin after getting beat on the glass by a 19-12 margin in the first half.

Jones had eight boards for Tennessee while Bashaara Graves finished with seven.  Moses Johnson had eight to lead the Lady Mocs.

Both teams will be on the road for their next game as Tennessee goes to Texas for a game on Sunday.  The Lady Mocs play at Arkansas State on Monday.

TENNESSEE (63) – Burdick 4, Graves 8, Moore 6, Reynolds 4, Carter 6, Jones 21, Massengale 11, Nared 3, Middleton.

CHATTANOOGA (67) – Joyner 5, A. Gilbert, Payne 3, K. Gilbert 27, Shumpert 8, Towns 4, Vanlandingham, Johnson 8, Bramblett 12.

3-POINT GOALS – Tennessee 2-6 (Massengale 2); Chattanooga 4-12 (Shumpert, Johnson, Bramblett 2).

HALFTIME SCORE: Chattanooga, 37-21.

(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@comcast.net)

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