With starter Ka’Vonne Towns and Jasmine Joyner battling through illness to stay in the game and bench players stepping up big when needed, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team improved to 10-3 on the season with a hard-fought 59-49 win in the opening game of the USTA Holiday Classic in San Antonio, Texas, on Sunday afternoon.
Wth Towns and Joyner struggling in the first half, first-year player Sydney Vanlandingham gave UTC a big lift off the bench in the first half scoring all 11 of her points in the opening 20 minutes, including the redshirt sophomore transfer’s first 3-pointer with the Mocs to break a 24-24 tie with three minutes remaining the the half and give UTC the lead for good.
“It was definitely a relief,” the former UT-Martin player said of her 3-pointer in two seasons on the postgame radio show. “A lot of my shots that I’ve put up this season I think they’re going in and feel like they’re going in and they rim out on me. So that was just like a weight off my shoulders.”
Vanlandingham was also able to draw fouls and go 6-of-7 from the free throw line to keep the Mocs in the game early.
Despite being ill, Towns and Joyner battled through illness to help their team. Towns finished with a game-high 17 point — 13 of those in the second half — and Joyner managed to pull down seven rebounds and get three blocked shots after sitting much of the first half with two fouls as well as feeling under the weather.
“Ka’Vonne just gave a (tough) effort,” UTC coach Jim Foster said. “It’s really hard to play when you’re sick. She asked to come out two or three times, but every time I asked her if she was ready to go back in she was. So just a great effort.”
“And Sydney came off the bench and gave us a big lift. Our bench did a great job. Destiny (Bramblett) had to come off the bench and play a lot of minutes as well.”
Both teams struggled on offense, shooting less than 35 percent from the field, but the Mocs made nine 3-pointers and 14-of-17 free throws to overcome being outscored 24-14 in the paint and SIUE’s 37-32 rebounding advantage. Sophomore guard Chelsey Shumpert hit a pair of 3s to finish with 10 points, and junior Alicia Payne had six points on two 3-pointers. Freshman Keiana Gilbert also had six points, and contributed elsewhere with six rebounds, three assists and a block.
The Cougars (5-7) were led by Shronda Butts with 13 points, and Micah Jones scored 12 points and grabbed six rebounds.
UTC will be back in action today in the final day of the USTA Holiday Classic with a game at 1 p.m. Eastern against South Dakota. The Coyotes (10-2) are likely to present a tougher challenge for UTC after beating Texas-San Antonio 76-69 in Sunday’s second game of the Holiday Classic.
South Dakota has won eight straight, including a 69-65 road win over a Marquette team that has beat Vanderbilt this season. They are led by Raeshel Contreras, who averages 17.3 points per game and Nicole Seekamp with 15.1 points per game, and the Coyotes average 83.8 points per game while holding opponents to 67.2 points.
Depending on how her teammates recover from illness and as her game continues to improve, Vanlandingham knows she may be called on more often to come off the bench and help the Mocs, perhaps as early as today.
“Coach has been telling me recently to just go in and get rebounds, steals, tipped balls … and just bring energy to the team,” she said. “So that was my intention (Sunday). Then I had the opportunities to be a little aggressive, so I just took them and it paid off. “