Alicia Payne puts up a shot in the paint.
photo by Tim Evearitt
The No. 21-ranked University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team made it 18 straight with a 76-52 win over UNCG Saturday afternoon in Southern Conference action. Chattanooga improves to 22-3 on the year and 10-0 in conference play while the Spartans drop to 5-20 overall and 0-10 against the league.
Sophomore Chelsey Shumpert (Paducah, Ky.) hit a 3-pointer to start the scoring for the Mocs who led wire-to-wire for their 18th consecutive win and 44th against the conference.
Shumpert had a team-high 15 points and dished out four assists.
Sophomore Jasmine Joyner (Southaven, Miss.) was 7-of-8 from the field for 14 points with five rebounds in 16 minutes of play and for just the second time this season, did not have a blocked shot. Off the bench, senior Destiny Bramblett (Radcliff, Ky.) was 5-of-6 from the floor, making her one 3-point attempt, for 13 points.
The Mocs started out with a 7-0 lead but the Spartans’ aggressive play kept it close for most of the half.
“They come at you,” UTC head coach Jim Foster said. “I expect everybody in this conference to. They did a few things differently and then we started to adjust to what they were doing. Once we made that adjustment we got good opportunities.”
Shumpert hit a 3-pointer with 5:57 to play in the opening frame and sparked an 18-2 run by the Mocs who led 38-20 at halftime.
Chattanooga kept up the offensive pressure in the second half and led by as much as 27 points late in the period.
UNCG started the second half with a fast break layup from Shanese Harris who had eight points in the contest. The Mocs, however, outscored the Spartans 13-6 over the next 3:46 to spread its lead to 51-28 with 14:55 to play.
Bramblett helped push the Mocs lead to 63-57 with six of Chattanooga’s points in an 8-2 run giving UTC a 26-point lead with 8:49 to go in the game.
Chattanooga won the battle of the paint 42-32 and were 7-of-21 from beyond the arc while shooting 51.8 percent for the game. Chattanooga forced the Spartans into 19 turnovers and converted that to 23 points while giving up 10 points on 12 miscues of their own. UNCG, averaging a SoCon-best 11.5 steals per game, had just seven on the night while Chattanooga snare 13 with nine different players getting in on the action.
Foster cleared the bench for the second straight game and all 10 players scored. Freshman Keiana Gilbert (Columbia, Tenn.) had seven points and a team-high eight points with five assists. Junior Alicia Payne had six points and five rebounds while dishing out a game-high six assists with just two turnovers and two steals while senior Ka’Vonne Towns (Lilburn, Ga.) had eight points with five rebounds.
UTC outrebounded the Spartans 34-29 and had 13 second chance points on 12 offensive boards. UNCG grabbed 11 offensive rebounds and scored 11 second chance points.
Jade Scaife came off the bench for the Spartans to record a double-double with a game-high 21 points and 10 rebounds. She was the only UNCG player in double figures. Jarae Savage, also off the bench, contributed seven points. The Spartan starters accounted for just seven points and Lucy Mason was held to five points, well below her 14.5 points average.
Chattanooga will hit the road Monday to take on Western Carolina. The Catamounts fell 51-40 to ETSU on Saturday and are now 9-16 on the year and 1-9 in league play. The game is set to tip off at 7 p.m. at the Ramsey Center in Cullowhee, N.C. Follow all the action at GoMocs.com.
Chelsey Shumpert looking to pass to an open teammate.
photo by Tim Evearitt