Connecticut’s Napheesa Collier, right, shoots over Chattanooga’s Aryanna Gilbert, left, in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2016, in Hartford, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)In a season that has been full of them, Tuesday’s game against second-ranked Connecticut may have been the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team’s best learning experience yet.
The Mocs lost 80-43 to the four-time defending national champions in Storrs, Conn. It was their fourth consecutive loss, with two of those losses coming to 2016 NCAA tournament teams and top-five ranked competition. A third was to a Green Bay team that had won 18 consecutive Horizon League championships, and the other was to Maine, picked third in the America East Conference this preseason.
The road gets easier but certainly not easy for the Mocs (3-6), who visit Ohio Valley Conference regular-season champion UT-Martin at 7 p.m. Saturday.
After missing the last two games with an ankle injury, Chelsey Shumpert returned and was one of four players to lead the Mocs in scoring with nine points each. Keiana Gilbert had only two points with a team-high three assists. Jasmine Joyner added 10 rebounds, three steals and a block to her nine-point total.
Lakelyn Bouldin and Queen Alford also scored nine apiece.
“We had really good energy,” Shumpert said on the postgame radio broadcast. “We were confident in ourselves. The score wasn’t what we wanted it to be, but we learned from it.”
A couple of scoring lulls hurt the Mocs against the Huskies. Leading 14-11 early in the game, UTC went on a 6:06 drought that extended into the second quarter, allowing the Huskies to go on a 12-0 run to assume control. The Mocs trailed by only 12 (43-31) at halftime, but after Gilbert’s jumper to open the third quarter they went scoreless for 8:21, and the Huskies made an 18-0 run to blow the game wide open.
UTC had seven turnovers turned into 11 second-chance points in the third quarter.
“That’s the reason you play this team – to experience how they play,” coach Jim Foster said on the postgame broadcast. “I liked our intensity today; I thought we played hard, harder than in any game we’ve played this year, but the details, the little things, get manifested against a team like Connecticut.”
The Mocs shot 5-for-30 in the second half.
Napheesa Collier had a game-high 23 points for UConn (5-0). Katie Lou Samuelson had 19, while Kia Nurse had 12 and Gabby Williams 11 to go with a team-high 10 rebounds.