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Great escape: No. 17 UTC women survive OT scare to win SoCon title
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — After her offensive eruption in the first two rounds of the Southern Conference women’s basketball tournament, Jasmine Joyner’s production dipped as East Tennessee State game-planned to limit her in the final.
The Buccaneers’ plan worked, so the 6-foot-3 University of Tennessee at Chattanooga sophomore had to find another way to be productive Sunday. The answer was simple, because it’s what always has come to her naturally.
Joyner came up with nine rebounds and four blocked shots to go along with four points in the nationally 17th-ranked Mocs’ 61-56 overtime win in the championship game at the U.S. Cellular Center in Asheville, N.C. Even with her offensive number dropping, Joyner finished with three-game averages of 17.3 points, 13 rebounds, 3.7 blocks and 1.3 steals and was honored as the tournament’s most outstanding player.
Coming into the season, she was immediately targeted as the replacement for graduating centers Ashlyn Dewart and Faith Dupree. She immediately showed she was capable, with a 16-point, 20-rebound performance against Villanova in the season opener, but admitted Sunday that there were times she felt she “couldn’t do it.”
“There were plenty of times I doubted myself,” she said. “In practice, after bad games, I’d be frustrated in myself, but it’s my teammates that patted me on the butt and said, ‘Come on, Jaz, we need you.’ I feel that by being frustrated I’m letting down my teammates, and that’s not good for the team.”
She had opportunities to be frustrated Sunday against the Bucs (21-11), who received a Women’s NIT bid. ETSU coach Brittany Ezell admitted that after Joyner’s 22-point, 10-rebound performance against UNC Greensboro and her 26-point, 20-rebound semifinal against Furman, the Bucs kept a close eye on the lanky sophomore.
“We knew we had to keep her off the glass,” Ezell said. “We held her to nine rebounds, which is still a lot, but against some teams she’d have 20. We kept fresh post players on her, and they did a nice job of helping the helper when they were hedging on ball screens.
“We had to be physical with her. She’s long, but she’s not physically imposing.”
It has been Joyner’s length that has been the problem for most opponents. She ranks sixth in the nation at just over four blocks a game, and her 129 is a school record. She’s been the back anchor for a team that’s second in the nation in scoring defense and just won its third consecutive SoCon tournament championship.
“It’s really unbelievable,” Joyner said. “I couldn’t do this without my coaches and teammates. We couldn’t have been here if it wasn’t for teamwork. We have a close bond and we believe. We lost five amazing seniors, and the fact is that we believed we’d go far and win this conference.
“That’s what brought us here — the faith we had in one another.”
Chelsey Shumpert joined Joyner on the all-tournament first team from UTC, while Alicia Payne and Ka’Vonne Towns were second-team picks. ETSU’s Destiny Mitchell and Tianna Tarter and Furman’s Whitney Bunn were the other first-team members, while ETSU’s Serena Clark, Furman’s Brittany Hodges and Mercer’s Precious Bridges were named to the second team.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.