When Rudyard Kipling wrote the poem "If" in 1896, he didn't have the game of basketball in mind, and he certainly wasn't thinking of University of Tennessee at Chattanooga post player Jasmine Joyner.
However, the poem -- which begins "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs" -- was referenced by UTC women's basketball coach Jim Foster when describing Joyner's 10-point, 12-rebound performance in the Mocs' 58-43 win over a very physical North Carolina A&T team. The win came Sunday afternoon at McKenzie Arena in the final game of the two-day Chattanooga Christmas Classic.
"Jas kept her head," Foster said of the 6-foot-2 sophomore. "As a result she was rebounding the heck out of the ball, and she got some timely blocks and some timely baskets.
"A lot of times in a physical game, that's tough to do. It's tough to maintain your sanity."
Joyner and the Mocs (9-3) started slow, falling behind 6-0 in the first four minutes of the game before senior Ka'Vonne Towns hit a 3-pointer to get UTC's offense rolling and start a 13-0 run -- on two 3-pointers by Towns, a pair of layups by Joyner and a 3 by guard Chelsey Shumpert -- to take control of the game. The Mocs led 32-17 at halftime, led by as much as 23 in the second half and never allowed the Aggies to get closer than 13 in the final 20 minutes.
"I think we tried to get our offense going out of our defense," said Towns, who led UTC in scoring with 14 points. "So when they got on that run, we all kind of said 'OK, we've got to get going.' I think the perimeter shooting kind of helped us get going."
While not resorting to classic literature references, Joyner echoed her coach in saying patience and composure helped against an Aggies team that features four players 6-foot-2 or taller and tries to use their size to influence how their opponents play.
"After watching them [Saturday], I knew they were going to be physical," Joyner said of the Aggies' 54-49 win over Tennessee Tech in the first game of the weekend at McKenzie Arena. "I didn't know they were going to be that physical. I guess I didn't eat my cereal and get all big and buff like they were.
"I guess that's their game. They get very physical and can get you frustrated if you're not tough in the head. ... You just have to stay in the game and be very tough against them."
North Carolina A&T (6-6) was led by Eboni Ross with 17 points and eight rebounds, and April McRae scored 10 points. However, a day after Ross set a McKenzie Arena record with eight blocks against Tennessee Tech, she got no blocks against the Mocs, while Joyner had five blocks Sunday to finish the weekend with 12 blocks in UTC's two wins over the weekend.
"There was one play when one of my guards passed it to me on a pick and roll," Joyner said, referencing Ross. "I saw her coming and I wanted to see how disciplined she was. So I did a fake pump and she went up in the air, so I said 'She's not a very disciplined shot-blocker.'
"You just have to see who's more disciplined, and she really wasn't that disciplined as a shot-blocker."
Defensively, Sunday's game was the sixth time this season that the Mocs' tenacious defense held an opponent to fewer than 50 points and the fourth time in their current five-game winning streak.
UTC sophomore post player Jasmine Joyner, left, and North Carolina A&T's Eboni Ross jump for the opening top in the Mocs' 58-43 win Sunday at McKenzie Arena on Dec. 21, 2014."We can move our feet a little bit," Foster said of UTC's defensive pressure. "We've got a nice defensive group, and they understand that what we need to be is a really good defensive basketball team."
While Foster said the Mocs' offense is still evolving, UTC shot 52.6 percent from the field Sunday and effectively passed the ball to force the Aggies to play defense for much of the 30-second shot clock on each possession.
"Ball movement is a big deal, and that's why so many people liked watching the [San Antonio] Spurs last year," he said. "That's the way the game is supposed to be played.
"With all this dribble-drive stuff, when you see a team that moves the ball and reverses it to use the whole floor, it's kind of refreshing and kind of fun to watch."
UTC will take three days off for the Christmas holiday -- Towns said she plans to sleep for two of those days -- before returning to campus Christmas Day to prepare for two games in two days in San Antonio, Texas, at the University of Texas at San Antonio Holiday Classic. The Mocs will play Southern Illinois-Edwardsville next Sunday and will face South Dakota a week from today.
Contact Jim Tanner at jtanner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6478. Follow him at twitter.com/JFTanner.