Notre Dame forward Taya Reimer, center, battles for rebounding position with Chattanooga forward Keiana Gilbert, left, and Ka’Vonne Towns in their game on Nov. 21, 2014, in South Bend, Ind.For the first nine minutes of Friday afternoon’s game at No. 3-ranked Notre Dame, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team played toe-to-toe against last year’s NCAA tournament runner-up.
The Mocs were making shots and getting defensive stops and led by as many as four points. Then the wheels came off, as the Fighting Irish surged ahead with 11 minutes to play in the first half and rolled to an 88-53 win.
“The bottom line is it’s a 40-minute deal,” UTC coach Jim Foster said on the postgame radio broadcast, “and you can’t relax at any point in time and you have to compete.
“We had few people who weren’t competitive. They weren’t doing it at the level that’s necessary, and they weren’t getting back in.”
UTC (2-2) opened the game with a 3-point basket by Chelsey Shumpert, who scored the Mocs’ first eight points, and led 10-6 with 15:37 remaining in the opening period. The Mocs’ lead was 16-13 with 11:51 to go in the half, but that’s when Notre Dame and junior guard Jewell Loyd made their run.
Loyd hit a jumper to cut Notre Dame’s deficit to a single point, and the Irish took the lead for good on a layup by Linsday Allen and pushed the lead to 20-16 on a Loyd 3-point shot. From that point on, UTC was outscored 26-5 in the half and trailed 46-21 at the break.
In a similar scenario to UTC’s first loss of the season againt South Florida, post player Jasmine Joyner got into early foul trouble, making Notre Dame’s noticeable size difference even more pronounced until the second half.
“Jas has got be a smarter basketball player,” Foster said. “That is the second big game where she has gotten in foul trouble and had to sit a large part of the half.”
Joyner was more effective in the second half with no more fouls while setting a UTC single-game block record with eight against Notre Dame along with 11 rebounds and six points. It was the most blocks ever recorded on Notre Dame’s home court at Purcell Pavilion and move Joyner into fourth place for blocks in UTC history with 69.
“She will learn. She’s got a big heart,” Foster said. “Eleven rebounds and eight blocked shots in a game like this is a big deal for a player, and she will learn from this as she goes along.”
Notre Dame (3-0) was led by 20 points by Loyd, and four other Irish players scored in double figures. Mychal Johnson scored 17 points off the bench.
UTC was led by Shumpert’s 12 points, and Moses Johnson was effective in the second half and finished with 10 points in the loss.
“We started off good, but we needed some people to be agressive and I think we got a little shaken up,” Johnson said. “I tried to do what I could and be as aggressive as I could attacking the basket.”
UTC returns home to host Austin Peay on Monday night at 6 before hosting No. 4 Tennessee on Wednesday night in another tough test for the young Mocs.
“We’re a pretty young team, and every day (Foster is) putting us in situations where we have to grow,” Johnson said. “And we need to be stronger, smarter and tougher. We’re learning from these experiences.”