UTC women back home to face Austin Peay tonight

photo Chattanooga coach Jim Foster looks onto the court in his game with Notre Dame on Nov. 21, 2014, in South Bend, Ind. Notre Dame won 88-53.

Things have gone about as expected for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team so far this season.

UTC (2-2) have begun the season with wins over Big East teams Villanova and Butler and losses to South Florida and Notre Dame. The losses are somewhat palatable when you cosider USF was picked to finish second in the American Athletic Conference behind only mighty UConn, and Notre Dame is the No. 3 team in the nation coming off a trip to last season's national championship game.

But UTC second-year coach Jim Foster didn't earn a spot in the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame by just accomplishing what was expected. That's why UTC's schedule this season includes games against top programs such as Notre Dame, Tennessee and Stanford.

"I want competitive people; I want people that want to fight," Foster said after Friday's 88-53 loss at Notre Dame. "We were fighting at the end (against the Fighting Irish), and we fought the last five, six, seven minutes."

The level of competition drops somewhat tonight at 6 p.m. when the Mocs host Austin Peay (1-2), but the No. 4 Lady Vols arrive at McKenzie Arena on Wednesday night, making tonight's game an important tuneup to see what can be done to raise the level of his young team.

Sophomore Jasmine Joyner is leading the team with an average of 12 points and 11.8 rebounds per game, and she's already has 13 blocked shots -- including a UTC-record eight blocks against Notre Dame. Freshman Keiana Gilbert has adapted quickly to the college game with 10.8 points per game, and the other starters -- Chelsey Shumpert, Ka'Vonne Towns and Aryanna Gilbert -- have played well at times.

But Foster has pointed out more than once that some of his players aren't playing complete games, and he's shown that he will make changes when he's not seeing the effort he expects. After back-to-back losses to Minnesota and Hawaii last season, Foster moved Shumpert and Alex Black into the starting lineup and the Mocs went on a 25-game winning streak.

Against Notre Dame, UTC played with the Irish for nine minutes before letting the game get out of hand before intermission and trail 46-21 at halftime. But in the second half, Foster began rotating more players into the game and UTC -- particularly Joyner, who missed much of the first half with two fouls -- played better defense.

"There was a point in time when (Notre Dame was) shooting 70 percent for the game and we weren't getting stops or doing what we needed to do defensively," Foster said. "Then there was a point where we started to get hands on balls, block shots and compete at a level."

Offensively against Notre Dame, bench players Moses Johnson and Anna Claire Noblit provided an offensive spark in the second half of Friday's game. Johnson scored seven of her 10 points against Notre Dame in the second half, and Noblit added six points on a pair of 3-pointers, included one at the buzzer to end the game.

"Anna Claire might not the biggest, and she might not be the quickest or fastest player, but when she gets out there she competes," Foster said of the freshman guard from Tuscumbia, Ala. "And she's going to be out there more often.

"Freshmen have to learn things, but what she doesn't have to learn is that she's got a quick release and she's willing to take it. She is going get better defensively. She's got to be a better position defender, ... and she took strides in that direction tonight I thought."

Whether or not their are changes to the starting lineup or rotation, Johnson said that she and her teammates need to learn from playing tough competition like Notre Dame and find a way to play more consistent regardless of who they play.

"We did a good job playing with (Notre Dame) in the first half," she said a postgame radio interview. "We just have to use more of our strengths like we did in the first half on in a continuous basis."

Contact Jim Tanner at jtanner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6478. Follow him at twitter.com/JFTanner.

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