There was a point not so long ago when Brooklyn Crouch felt like the big city of Chattanooga was too much for her.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga freshman, a Cookeville native and former Upperman High School basketball star, missed home — a place where it seemed everybody either knew everybody or knew of everybody. Playing sports as a college freshman already meant a lot of new, and with UTC making the transition to first-year head coach Shawn Poppie and his staff, there were adjustments all around last summer and into the fall.
At times, it felt overwhelming for Crouch.
"Being away from home was really stressful for me," Crouch said Saturday. "I've never been away from my house for like, a week, so it was really hard, really stressful. But I talked to Coach Poppie and talked to the other coaches, and they comforted me, and just having that comfort helped a lot."
Once she got over her homesickness, the 5-foot-7 guard and 2022 Tennessee Class AA Miss Basketball — affectionately nicknamed "Smiley" because, well, she's always smiling — had to figure out just how she could become a productive member of the Mocs, who were coming off a 7-23 record in 2021-22 for a winning percentage of .233, the lowest for a season in program history.
All she knew was working, though, so Crouch found her way into the gym and continued to work on her game. The diligence has been noticed by her coaches, and the result has been Crouch being one of the players trusted off the bench for a UTC team that doesn't go very deep.
Crouch played almost 17 minutes in Saturday's 78-70 overtime victory against Southern Conference foe Mercer at McKenzie Arena, a game in which the Mocs held the lead for more than 36 minutes.
Yazz Wazeerud-Din and Raven Thompson finished with 23 points each, and Abbey Cornelius had 18 for the Mocs (10-8, 2-1), who have struggled in late-game situations and did so again at the end of regulation against the Bears (6-11, 2-2). In the extra frame, though, UTC was 5-for-6 from the field, including 3-pointers by Sigrun Olafsdottir and Wazeerud-Din, and 8-of-11 on free throws to secure the win.
Thompson's seven rebounds and three steals were game highs, as were Porter's seven assists.
Mercer's Enjulina Gonzalez led all scorers with 34 points on 15-for-21 shooting in 36 minutes off the bench, and starter Amoria Neal-Tysor, with 10 points, was the only other Mercer scorer in double figures. The Bears overcame a 14-point deficit in the second half, and a basket by Gonzalez made it 58-all with 15 seconds left in the fourth quarter, a tie that held to force overtime.
All five UTC starters — Cornelius, Olafsdottir, Porter, Thompson and Wazeerud-Din — played at least 32 minutes, with Wazeerud-Din on the court for all 45. Poppie is still trying to build trust in his bench, but it appears Crouch has made that list.
"It's my first year here, right? And I preach to them on a daily basis that everything I do for them is all about trust," Poppie said. "How do you do that? Practice. How do you do that? You come in extra. You're on the court; you get in film.
"When things aren't going well, you don't shy away, you come up and try to fix it, and that's been Brooklyn. She's been up and down, don't get me wrong, but she's been steady in the sense of trying to grow. So I have a trust that every day she's coming trying to execute what we're doing."
When Crouch was homesick, she spoke to Poppie, who let the player know she "had a family here" in Chattanooga. Suddenly, she's starting to fit into the culture — and seeing the on-court results and playing time reflect that.
"It took time," Crouch said. "It took practicing and learning my spot on the team. I needed to bring the energy, bring my smile, bring some positivity."
UTC's next two games are on the road, against Wofford (12-5, 2-1) at 6 p.m. Thursday and Furman at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.