East Tennessee State women’s basketball coach Brittney Ezell knows her way around Chattanooga, but her team had trouble getting around the block in its visit to McKenzie Arena on Saturday.
Jasmine Joyner tied her University of Tennessee at Chattanooga record with nine blocked shots and Aryanna Gilbert added two as the Mocs beat ETSU’s Buccaneers 60-45.
UTC’s perimeter defense was formidable, too, and Lakelyn Bouldin and Chelsey Shumpert combined to make seven 3-point shots and score 30 points in the Mocs’ 44th consecutive Southern Conference home win. It was their 14th straight win against SoCon competition overall.
Joyner had 10 rebounds, eight points and three steals for UTC (9-8, 3-0), and her nine blocks raised her school- and SoCon-record career total to 386 and 16th place in NCAA Division I women’s history. She passed Jessica Davenport, who played at Ohio State for now-UTC coach Jim Foster, and is 10 away from former Connecticut star Rebecca Lobo.
ETSU (9-9, 1-2), coming off a road win at Samford, took 66 shots from the field but made only 17 (25.8 percent), and the Buccaneers were 4-of-23 from 3-point range (17.4 percent). UTC shot 42 percent from the field despite a 26.7 percent fourth quarter and made seven of 18 3s.
Bucs junior Tianna Tarter essentially matched her SoCon-best scoring average with 19 points but was 7-of-16 from the field, and senior Shamauria Bridges followed her 23 points and five 3s at Samford with nine points on 3-of-17 shooting, 1-of-10 from the arc. Bridges did make four steals.
Sophomore Raven Dean scored 10 points and had 12 rebounds, including five of ETSU’s 19 offensive rebounds (but with only six second-chance points). Dean was 4-of-14 from the field, but she, Tarter and Bridges scored all but seven of their team’s points.
UTC never trailed in the game, and Bouldin 3s followed tying Tarter shots for 5-2 and 8-5 leads. The Mocs led by 20, 47-27, after back-to-back Shumpert 3s late in the third quarter.
“We’re very young, but we need some of the young ones to step up,” said Ezell, a former Alabama basketball and softball star from Franklin, Tenn., who played two years with Chattanooga’s Parker Blades softball travel team while in high school.
“We always write on the board, ‘Don’t lose to ETSU,’ and I thought we did that today. When you shoot less than 30 percent from the floor and 17 percent from 3, you’re not giving yourself a chance. But that’s not to take anything from Chattanooga. They’re well-coached and they do a really good job.
“And Jasmine Joyner is a difficult matchup on both ends of the floor,” Ezell added. “She made it very difficult for us.”
Just as Bouldin said the game “was coming to me from the start,” Joyner modestly said “the ball was just coming to my hand.” She said she tried “to play smart,” especially after an early over-the-back foul, and “not try to block everything.”
Both said the key to the team’s stingy defenses, inside and outside, was communication and knowing where the Bucs’ dangerous shooters were at all times – and challenging them effectively.
“I think we did a pretty good job of knowing where folks were,” Coach Foster said. “We’re starting to have a better sense of who we are and how we need to play. We have to play disciplined and we got a little off-kilter in the fourth quater, but we (played smart) early.”
UTC hosts Western Carolina at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.