CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team took a break from the Preseason WNIT to host Butler and came away with a 60-49 win against the Bulldogs. The Mocs improve to 2-0 on the year and the Bulldogs even out at 1-1.
 
Junior Moses Johnson (Atlanta, Ga.) dropped in a team-high 12 points and matched her career-best for rebounds with nine in the contest to lead the Mocs. Aryanna and Keiana Gilbert (Pulaski, Tenn.) each recorded 11 points for Chattanooga while Keiana grabbed six boards. She and Johnson combined for eight of the Mocs' 12 offensive snares.
 
The game started slow with both teams combining to miss the first 10 shots. Butler would score first and get out to a 4-0 lead with 6:26 to go in the opening frame. Aryanna Gilbert took a pass from senior Alicia Payne (Memphis, Tenn.) for the Mocs first score and Chattanooga put together a short 8-2 run to take its first lead of the game.
 
Butler bounced back with the next four points to lead 10-8 at the first break.
 
"Games are game," Chattanooga head coach Jim Foster said. "They're always different and figuring out what you need to figure out is part of the process.
 
"I thought we grinded defensively and I thought we got very good looks at the basket. The ball just didn't go in for the first four or five minutes of the quarter. Once it did, we shot the ball fairly and took advantage of our opportunities."
 
The Mocs tied it up 10-10 to start the second half, sparking a 19-2 run that put UTC out front 27-12 for its largest lead of the half with 2:14 to play in the period. The Mocs had a balanced attack in the frame, getting scoring from six different players. Johnson and Payne each dropped in five points and Johnson grabbed five rebounds.
 
Chattanooga led 27-19 at the half and stretched it out to 32-19 to start the second half. The Bulldogs responded with five points to make it 32-24 at the 6:59 mark of the period. UTC struck back with the next eight points for its largest lead of the game, 40-24, at the 4:04 of the third.
 
It would be all Butler from there. Tori Schickel and Taylor Buford combined for the Bulldog's final 10 points of the frame to cut the lead to 40-34 at the end of three.
 
In the fourth, Butler cut it to a 44-41 game on an old-fashioned 3-point play from Blaire Langlois who nailed her free throw at the 7:32 mark of the frame. The Mocs responded with a layup from Johnson and a trio of free throws to make it 49-41 at the 4:01 mark. Butler went 2-of-4 from the free throw line to cut the lead to six, but junior Chelsey Shumpert drained a 3-pointer, and the Mocs lead grew to nine, 52-43, with 3:04 on the clock.
 
Butler responded with a 3-pointer from Langlois to get within six points again, but that's as close as it would be the remainder of the game.
 
Keiana Gilbert had four of the Mocs next six points to put the lead into double-digits for the first time in the quarter and after one free throw from the Bulldogs, Chattanooga got three more points for the final score.
 
Chattanooga shot 46.9 percent for the day making 23-of-49 from the field and hitting three 3-pointers. The Mocs outscored Butler 38-28 in the paint and got 19 points off 18 Bulldog miscues. The teams matched each other on the boards with 31 and UTC scored 13 points off 12 offensive rebounds.
 
Johnson had 12 of the Mocs 19 bench points with no turnovers. She was 5-of-6 from the field and had one from beyond the arc. Sophomore Ansley Chilton (Trenton, Ga.) added five points off the bench, spelling junior Jasmine Joyner who got into foul trouble early.
 
"We have depth," Foster said. "I think with Moses, it's very obvious when you look at the stat sheet to see that she played very well and visually, she played very well.
 
"Ansley coming off the bench was really important for us because Jasmine struggled. We really didn't have a post threat when Jasmine went to the bench last year and Ansley gives us a player where we can give it to her on the block and she can score."
 
Chattanooga held Butler to 37.5 percent shooting, making 18-of-48 and three 3-pointers. The Bulldogs were 10-of-16 from the free throw line, shooting 62.5 percent.
 
Schickel led all scorers with 17 points and Longlois chipped in 16, making 4-of-12 from the floor and was near perfect from the free throw line making six of her seven attempts.
 
Chattanooga returns to action Tuesday evening at Indiana for the second round of the Women's NIT. The Mocs defeated McNeese State in the season opener and will take on the Hoosiers at 7:00 p.m. at Assembly Hall.