CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team claimed its 20^th Southern Conference regular season title with a 66-42 win over East Tennessee State Saturday afternoon at the McKenzie Arena as the Mocs honored lone senior Alicia Payne.
 
Payne helped UTC to its 108^th win over the last four years and a fourth straight regular season title for the point guard from Memphis, Tenn. The Mocs will share the crown with Mercer (22-7, 12-2) and receive the second seed for the upcoming league tournament.
 
Junior Jasmine Joyner (Southaven, Miss.) recorded her ninth double-double of the season with a game-high 21 points 10 rebounds and four assists. She added five blocked shots to her school record total to reach 302 for her career. She shot 60 percent in the win, making 9-of-15 from the field and was 3-of-4 from the free throw line.
 
ETSU outscored the Mocs 16-13 in the first quarter, but it would be all Chattanooga in the second with a 14-4 run that gave UTC a 27-20 lead at the half. The Bucs were 1-of-4 in the frame and had eight turnovers resulting in seven UTC points. Chattanooga got scoring from four of its five starters in the period, making 6-of-12 from the field.
 
Chattanooga continued its onslaught into the second half, outscoring ETSU 25-12 in the third quarter, making 61.1 percent (11-18) of its attempts to stretch the lead to 52-32.
 
"We got more aggressive on defense, started to beat some screens," Chattanooga head coach Jim Foster said. "We made it more difficult for them to get shots. They got easy shots early on.
 
"They had a week to prepare for us. They obviously had and we had to make some adjustments and we did."
 
Payne closed out the quarter with a "desperation" 3-pointer at the buzzer that banked in as she hit the ground.
 
"I work on these shots a lot in practice," Payne said. "They [teammate] think that I'm joking around when I'm shooting from half court or just trying to throw up shots. They don't think it will come in handy. Sometimes it does."
 
The Mocs were 24-of-49 (49%) from the field and outrebounded the Bucs 30-27. Sophomore Keiana Gilbert (Pulaski, Tenn.) had 19 points and was one rebound shy of her season-high with eight. She was 6-of-10 from the floor and 5-of-6 from the free throw line with a pair of 3-pointers, two assists and two steals.
 
Aryanna Gilbert (Pulaski, Tenn.) was the third Chattanooga players in double figures with 11 points, she was 5-of-5 on the night with a 3-pointer in 26 minutes.
 
Chattanooga outscored the Bucs in the paint 38-24 and had a 14-7 edge on second chance points. ETSU's bench outscored the Mocs 10-4.
 
Tianna Tarter and Malloree Schurr led the attack for the Bucs with 10 points each. Tarter had a team-high seven rebounds and Chandler Christopher, with eight points, had a team-best four assists.
 
The win was the 862^nd for Foster who ties former Georgia head coach Andy Landers for ninth on the all-time wins list and is one behind Montana's Robin Selvig who passed Landers with a win today.
 
Chattanooga will take on the No. 7 seed Thursday, March 3 in the quarterfinals of the Southern Conference Tournament at the U.S. Cellular Center in Asheville, N.C. The tournament bracket will be released later tonight unless an RPI tiebreak is needed. In that case, the bracket will be revealed Sunday morning.