Jim Foster has a luxury this season.
Three of them, actually.
And they were all on display Saturday in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team's 87-82 overtime win over UT-Martin at McKenzie Arena.
With so many new players being asked to contribute, Foster knew the Mocs' chances for success early in his fifth season as coach were going to hinge on how well returning starters Lakelyn Bouldin, Aryanna Gilbert and Keiana Gilbert performed. So he told them they'd need to be more assertive offensively while the younger players gained college experience.
"We've been throwing the ball to the right three (players)," Foster said after Saturday's win. "They've made some big shots and took responsibility among themselves to be aggressive. Key and Ary are country kids who have lived in the city long enough that they've got a little bit of swagger in them; Lakelyn, we'll never get her out of the country.
"The three have pretty good basketball IQ. It's tough to contain the three of them, and we have some kids that'll come along once they stop throwing the ball to their parents in the bleachers."
Aryanna Gilbert has been the most consistent of the three. On Saturday, the fifth-year senior scored 25 points, one off her career high of 26 against Austin Peay in the 2014-15 season, which was cut short for her by a knee injury. She has averaged 13.4 points, 5.4 rebounds and three assists this season and already has made 14 3-point field goals, one short of her career total entering this season.
After a 3-for-10 start from 3-point range, Bouldin has made 18 of her past 37 3-point attempts and has averaged 13 points per game this season, third on the team behind the Gilbert sisters. Her career high of 23 in Saturday's game included a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws in the final 16 seconds.
Keiana Gilbert has been hot the past five games, averaging 17.8 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists in that stretch.
"We're the ones from last year that got a lot of experience on the court, so we know we lost a lot of seniors and we have to basically carry this team ourselves," Keiana said. "So if that comes down to us scoring and helping our team come back, that's what we'll have to do.
"To start the season off, we didn't start on a good end, so my mindset was I needed to do what I can for the team to turn this around, so I had to get more aggressive and be more consistent throughout every game and not just one game or another, no matter who we're playing."
And there's still room to grow for this team, which has won six straight after an 0-3 start and returns to competition Dec. 10 against Virginia Tech at McKenzie.
Junior point guard Molly Melton has stepped into the starting role, which has taken Keiana out of having to handle so many ball-handling responsibilities. Sophomore Arianne Whitaker, who hasn't played since 2015-16, is starting to figure things out. Other returning players such as juniors Shelbie Davenport and Ashlyn Wert have had their moments, though a freshman class with potential talent has struggled to figure things out.
If that happens this season and Bouldin and the Gilberts continue to succeed, UTC could be an accomplished team in the end.
"It's scary how good we could be," Aryanna Gilbert said. "Not only us, but when Molly is knocking down shots and Air (Whitaker) is getting involved and the people coming off the bench get better, I think we'll be even better."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.