The 7:00 pm game will be live-streamed by Stanford Athletics and broadcast by KZSU; live stats will be available here.
Chattanooga grabbed national attention last season with stunning upsets of Stanford and Tennessee. They went on to an unbeaten Southern Conference record and a third straight NCAA tournament berth. Third-year head coach Jim Foster was expected to make that four in row with the return of nearly every key player.
Unfortunately for the Mocs, two of their key players are no longer in action. Starting junior guard and second-best scorer Chelsea Shumpert suffered a season-ending knee injury in the Mocs' third game of the season. Shumpert scored the game-high 18 points against Stanford last season on five-of-nine from beyond the arc.
Starting redshirt sophomore guard Aryanna Gilbert, who tore her ACL last December, has not played in the past four games; no injury report has been published.
In spite of these setbacks, the Mocs lead the Southern Conference with an 8-4 win-loss record. Three of the losses were to ranked teams — UConn, Tennessee (by just two points) and South Florida.
The Mocs are not ranked, but their RPI is 23 and their schedule-strength rank is 29.
As was the case last season, the Mocs are a very disciplined team. They excel defensively without fouling. They have committed the second-fewest fouls of any team in the nation (11.6 per game).
The Mocs are led by 6-2 junior forward Jasmine Joyner. She is the Mocs' leading scorer (12.4 ppg) and rebounder (8.5 rpg). In spite of her modest height, she is the nation's second-best shot blocker with an average of 4.33 per game. With Shumpert out of action, the Mocs don't have much in the way of 3-point shooting, but Joyner has begun to expand her game and is now the Mocs' best 3-point shooter with an average of 1.1 per game at a rate of 38%.
5-11 sophomore guard Keiana Gilbert, Aryanna 's younger sister, is the Moc's second-best scorer with 12.3 ppg.
5-9 senior point guard Alicia Payne was voted the Southern Conference Defensive Player of the Year last season. She averages 6.3 points per game and 3.7 assists with just 2.0 turnovers.
6-0 junior guard Moses Johnson and 5-10 freshman guard Nakeia Burks have completed the starting lineup for the past four games. The sixth Moc to consistently play major minutes is 5-10 junior guard Queen Alford. Combined, they average 16.5 points and 11.3 rebounds per game.
Here are Chattanooga's statistics and roster.
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