Tennessee's Bashaara Graves, right, works against Alabama's Bri Huchen in the first half Sunday. Graves had a team-high 19 points and eight rebounds as the Lady Vols won 96-69.

CULLOWHEE, N.C. - Two good things happened for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team Sunday afternoon at the Ramsey Center: The Lady Mocs crushed the Catamounts, 70-43, and coach Wes Moore got to rest his starters.

Point guard Alex Black played a team-high 26 minutes -- she also made three 3-point shots -- and the rest of the starters got to watch from the bench for a long stretch in the second half. Ashlen Dewart led UTC with 13 points, Kayla Christopher added 12 and all 12 Lady Mocs scored.

UTC and Elon are tied for first in the Southern Conference, and the Lady Mocs (14-3, 7-1) are now two games into a stretch of three road games in six days and five of six games on the road.

"It was nice to be able to play different people, in different combinations, and rest some people," UTC coach Wes Moore said. "Every little bit helps."

The Lady Mocs visit Samford (9-8, 6-2) on Wednesday. The Bulldogs had won four in a row before falling 63-51 at Davidson on Sunday.

Western Carolina (4-12, 2-5) hung around for a while in the first half. Ali Lane scored with 7:57 to play in the first half to cut UTC's lead to 17-14. It was all UTC after that.

The Lady Mocs closed the half on a 13-2 run, for a 30-16 lead, and then started the second with an 18-4 spurt. UTC's largest lead was 36 points, 64-28, after Ka'Vonne Towns hit a 3 with 7:06 to play in the game.

"We shot the ball well, and when we shoot well we also seem to have energy on defense and do a lot of things well," Moore said.

UTC shot 49.1 percent from the field, got 12 steals and had a 24-8 advantage in points in the paint. The Catamounts did out-rebound UTC 37-28, with 19 offensive rebounds.