After traveling six hours to take on UNC Greensboro on Monday night, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball Mocs dialed up a bit of long distance of their own.
Led by senior Ka’Vonne Towns and sophomore Chelsey Shumpert, UTC went 12-of-16 from 3-point range and blew past the Spartans 81-46 for its 12th consecutive victory.
Shumpert hit five 3-pointers and scored 19 points while Towns was 4-of-5 from 3-point range and finished with 15 points for the Mocs (16-3, 4-0) in the Southern Conference win. Jasmine Joyner (11) and Alicia “Red” Payne (10) also scored in double figures, and Joyner added six rebounds and four blocks.
“When Chelsey and Ka’Vonne get hot, we look to reverse the ball and get the ball in their hands,” said freshman Keiana Gilbert, who scored nine points and grabbed a career-best 13 rebounds.
UTC scored the first six points of the game and quickly pulled away from UNCG, using ball control to counter the Spartans’ defensive pressure in building a 47-18 halftime lead.
“They play a certain way, and they keep playing that way,” UTC coach Jim Foster said of the Spartans on the postgame radio broadcast. “They’re very explosive and very athletic. We happen to have four people who start who are very good ball-handlers, and it’s hard to play that way against us because it doesn’t matter who brings the ball up.”
While UTC committed more turnovers than UNCG, the Mocs were able to use outside shooting and timely rebounds to remain in control. Gilbert, normally an offensive threat, went to the glass to limit the Spartans’ second-chance opportunities.
“We really weren’t boxing out that well,” she said. “So the team was basically depending on me and (Joyner) to rebound. I had to go a little bit out of my ordinary and get extra rebounds for the team.
“We didn’t want them to get extra shots, so I had to go out of my way to get rebounds on the defensive end.”
Gilbert has shown versatility throughout her first season of college basketball.
“Well, she is our second-leading rebounder, and today we needed her to rebound it,” Foster said. “She has a pretty good understanding of doing what we need in a particular game.
“(UNCG) is as athletic a team as we’ve played all year, and they’re going to the glass. Keiana sort of stood up for us and had a big-time rebounding game for her.”
UNC Greensboro (4-14, 0-4) played 13 players against UTC and was led by Mariah Wilson and Lucy Mason with eight points each, but the Spartans were held to 31.4 percent shooting from the floor to the Mocs’ 65.1 percent field-goal rate. Wilson also led the Spartans with eight rebounds.
Foster was happy with the Mocs’ composure in the face of UNCG’s swarming defense, especially an effective night by sophomore Moses Johnson, who had nine points and only one turnover.
“I liked Moses tonight a lot,” he said. “In that frantic a pace in the past, she would have played as they wanted us to. But she was patient and got the ball into the right people’s hands and made some very good decisions.”
UTC will open a three-game home stand Saturday against Furman at 3 p.m. as the opening game of a doubleheader with the men’s team at McKenzie Arena.
Contact Jim Tanner at jtanner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6478. Follow him at twitter.com/JFTanner.