› ETSU women beat Mocs in big comeback, 61-55.
All the good things the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team did for 28 minutes of Saturday’s game against East Tennessee State, the Mocs failed to do in the final 12.
Turnovers and poor 3-point defense were just a couple of the reasons UTC lost a 16-point lead and fell 61-55 to the Bucs at McKenzie Arena.
The Mocs (15-9, 6-4) are two games behind second-place ETSU (15-10, 8-2) in the Southern Conference standings and four behind Mercer with two weeks left in the regular season. They will host Furman on Thursday.
UTC held a 29-20 lead at halftime, having executed well on all cylinders. The Mocs had limited the Bucs to 24 percent shooting from the floor, had turned the ball over only seven times against relentless fullcourt pressure and had a combined 20 points from Keiana Gilbert and Lakelyn Bouldin. Although Gilbert followed her 11-point first half with a 14-point third quarter, the tide had started to turn by the end of the period.
With 2:51 to play in the third, the Mocs led 45-29 after an Aryanna Gilbert layup. The rest of the way, they would allow 32 points while being outscored by 22. Nine of UTC’s 19 turnovers came in that span, usually leading to fast-break layups by Tianna Tarter or Erica Haynes-Overton, who combined for 39 points. The Bucs turned UTC’s turnovers into 26 points.
“I don’t think we defended like we should have,” Keiana Gilbert said. “On the offensive end we weren’t executing and we were making costly turnovers, so that cost us because they were scoring off our turnovers. They’re athletic and physical and fast in transition, and wed did not do a good job of getting back and stopping the ball.”
To make matters worse, ETSU — shooting a leagueworst 27 percent from 3-point range for the season — made five consecutive from long range.
“That’s what we did?” ETSU coach Brittney Ezell asked afterward. “I’ll be honest, I’ve yet to tell a kid to stop shooting 3s. I know what they’re capable of — I see them in practice — and everybody has a green light with me. I think that breeds confidence for them because when they get in moments like this, I’m not yelling and screaming.
“Stats are just that. Sometimes the human element kicks in, a little focus takes place; sometimes you get hot at the right time and it gets contagious. That must have been what it was today, but I have complete faith in all my kids. I don’t cringe at all when any of them shoot it, not at all.”
The Bucs shot 48 percent from the field in the second half and were 6-for-9 from 3-point range.
“You have to convince kids of a lot of things,” UTC coach Jim Foster said. “Why not have a hand in their face? We went out and dared them to make the shot; we did not challenge them, we did not have our hands up. We didn’t play anywhere near defensively the way we needed to play with the kind of team we have.
“We can’t take anything for granted. In the first half we did every detail; in the second half we got tired of the detail and got satisfied exchanging baskets instead of a score and a stop. We’re not tough; this team does not have toughness yet.”
Keiana Gilbert finished with 27 points on 11-for-19 shooting from the floor. Bouldin had 14, but no other UTC player had more than five while shooting a combined 23 percent from the floor.
“Make no mistake about it: We’re as responsible for what happened out there as they played well,” Foster said. “We just have Key have to have all the responsibility; she had to lead in scoring, run the offense and guard the other team’s best player. Where’s the help?
“Who else is going to take responsibility of handling the ball, making a play? Is it all going have to come back on the shoulders of one person? Where was our post game? We need our post game and we’ve been getting it, been practicing well, but it was nonexistent today. We rushed every shot.
“The enemy was us. We allowed them to hang around. We know a run is going to come, but we allowed them to hang around, when you depend too much on one-two players. You have to have players step up, take responsibility, want the ball and not put in the hands of one person. Tarter had a lot of help; Keiana did not.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.