PALO ALTO, Calif. --- "The schedule we play, we are always going to play against people like this," University of Tennessee at Chattanooga head coach Jim Foster said in the Mocs 73-30 loss to Stanford at Maples Pavilion Monday night. "They are always going to be big."
 
The Mocs (8-5) shot just 21.1 percent for the game making 12-of-57 from the field and hit four 3-pointers including a long heave from senior Alicia Payne (Memphis, Tenn.) that banked in at the buzzer. Payne led the team with nine points, making 3-of-9 with all of her points coming from behind the line. She added seven rebounds and had a pair of steals.
 
Juniors Moses Johnson (Atlanta, Ga.) and Queen Alford (Decatur, Ga.) each chipped in six points and combined for seven rebounds. Sophomore Keiana Gilbert (Pulaski, Tenn.) had a team-high nine rebounds with four points.
 
Stanford (10-2) came on strong to start the game outscoring UTC 15-2 over the first five minutes. The Mocs put together a 7-3 run to cut it to 18-9 with 1:52 to play in the first quarter, but that is as close as it would be the rest of the way. The Cardinal held Chattanooga to nine points in each of the first quarters and led 40-18 at the half.
 
"I thought we competed a little bit better in the second half, in terms of our defense," Foster said. "Offensively, we have one point guard.  Red is the point guard.  The other is out for the season so she's got to be in there all of the time."
 
Chattanooga played the third quarter even for more than eight minutes with each team scoring seven points in the frame. Stanford managed four more points, however, before the period ended to take a 51-25 lead, its largest of the game at that time.
 
In the fourth quarter the Mocs were held to just five points. Junior Jasmine Joyner (Southaven, Miss.) broke a 22-0 run by the Cardinal with her first points of the game with 2:47 to play to make it 69-27.
 
Erica McCall was 9-of-16 for Stanford and led all scorers with 18 points. She pulled down a team-high eight rebounds and added four blocked shots. Lili Thompson added 11 points and Karlie Samuelson had 10 for the Cardinal.
 
Alanna Smith contributed seven points and seven rebounds off the bench and Kaylee Johnson had eight poins and six boards. Briana Thompson scored nine points, making 3-of-3 from beyond the arc and had five assists in 21 minutes.
 
Stanford outscored Chattanooga 41-10 in the paint and had 27 points off 21 UTC miscues. The Cardinal outrebounded UTC 48-40 and scored 17 points off 19 offensive rebounds while the Mocs had 14 second chance points.
 
"I told them, we are not changing the way we are playing," Foster his postgame radio interview. "We are not taking a step back.  We are not playing the 10^th or 11^th place team in the league.  You look up at the wall and you see that this team has won Pac-10, Pac-12 championships.  They are used to winning and they are very good at home."
 
The Mocs, who are 58-of-60 over the last four years at home, return to Chattanooga to host Harvard Monday, January 4 at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale at the McKenzie Arena box office or online at GoMocs.com.