Move the ball. Take care of the ball.
Get good results.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team did just that Monday night against Stetson, with 16 assists in a 66-55 win over the Hatters in front of 1,514 at McKenzie Arena.
The Mocs (5-6) finished their sprint of 11 games in the first 25 days of the season and won't play again until a trip to Florida Gulf Coast on Dec. 20. They'll play at home a week later against top-ranked Notre Dame.
The Mocs had only seven turnovers with their season-high assist total, led by Chelsey Shumpert's six assists. Lakelyn Bouldin added five.
Jasmine Joyner led the team with 19 points, eight rebounds and eight blocked shots. Shumpert scored 15 points and Keiana Gilbert had 13 with five rebounds. Bouldin scored 12.
Queen Alford had seven points with a team-high 11 rebounds.
The Mocs forced 13 Stetson turnovers, turning those into 18 points. They also committed only five fouls, while the Hatters committed 19. That allowed UTC to hold a 10-2 advantage on free throws made.
"Assist-to-turnover ratio terrific; only committing five fouls was terrific," UTC coach Jim Foster said. "They're a physical team and we handled that, and we handled the adjustment when they went to the zone (defense).
"The team has started to blend; the veterans are realizing they have to change, while the freshman (Bouldin), with the encouragement from the upperclassmen, has learned to be a good communicator."
The aggressive Stetson team led 16-14 after a quarter, paced by six points from Brittany Chambers. The Hatters twice led by seven in the second quarter, the last after a Chambers 3-pointer with 5:18 to play, but the Mocs responded with a 20-2 run extending into the third quarter to take control of the game.
"Our mentality changed," Shumpert said. "We knew we had to step up our energy going into the second half, and that helped us coming back out after halftime."
The Hatters closed within four on a layup by Breana Bey with 8:27 to play, but UTC responded with a 17-8 spurt to pull away.
Brianti Saunders led the Hatters (8-2) with 11 points, becoming the school's all-time leading scorer in the third quarter with a 3 from the left corner. She also had five assists.
Myka Johnson-Matthews and Kennedi Colclough had 10 points each.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.