UTC Mocs logoMoses Johnson and the rest of the freshmen on the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team have been waiting their chance to show that they can contribute to the 2013-2014 basketball team. Sunday afternoon, they got their chance – and made the most of it.
Johnson and classmate Jasmine Joyner tied Taylor Hall for scoring honors with 10 points each, and the Mocs rallied from a 14-point second half deficit to defeat Colorado State 59-57 on the final day of the Waikiki Beach Marriott Rainbow Wahine Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii. Chelsey Shumpert, another freshman, hit a pair of free throws with 2.1 seconds remaining to provide the final margin on a flagrant foul by the Lady Rams’ A.J. Newton.
With the team struggling in the first half, down 36-23 and shooting only 30 percent, UTC head coach Jim Foster, who had mentioned after Saturday evening’s loss to Hawaii that there could be some changes on the horizon, started the second half with freshmen Joyner, Shumpert and Whitney Hartlage in the lineup. Johnson and Aryanna Gilbert each played major minutes, with Johnson scoring all of her points in the final 20 minutes.
At times, Foster had four freshmen on the floor with Hall, who played all 120 minutes of the three-game event.
“We got our chance to give coach the spark he wanted, and we did what we had to do,” Johnson said on the radio. “We were really pumped about it; we’ve been waiting for our chance, so when we got in there, we just tried to give our best to our ability to do what Coach Foster wanted us to do.”