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Improv Little Rock
Improv Little Rock performs at the Public Theater the evening of Thursday, June 14.
When the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team played East Tennessee State on Feb. 2 in Johnson City, the host Lady Bucs dominated the backboards but the Mocs posted an eight-point victory.
In Saturday's rematch at McKenzie Arena, the Mocs dominated the glass and the game, winning 64-42 in front of 3,309 fans at senior day. The 13th largest crowd in the program's history saw UTC seniors Destiny Bramblett, Ka'Vonne Towns and Kayla Freeman honored after the rout.
No. 18-ranked UTC started the game with a 15-0 run and led by 18 points at halftime on the way to its 22nd consecutive win and 46th straight in Southern Conference play. The Mocs will face UNC Greensboro at noon Thursday in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament in Asheville, N.C.
The Mocs (26-3, 14-0) outrebounded the Bucs 33-19, led by Jasmine Joyner's 14. She also tied Towns with 14 points and added two blocked shots, breaking the conference record for blocks in a season with 118. Sharon Deal had 117 for Marshall in 1988-89.
Chelsey Shumpert added nine points for UTC. Destiny Mitchell led second-place ETSU with 13 points. Shamauria Bridges added 12 and Maria Bond had 11, but the Bucs shot 24 percent (5-of-21) from the field in the first half.
Towns hit three 3s in the first 4:32 of the game, helping the Mocs to an 11-0 lead by the first media timeout. The lead swelled to 15 as the Bucs (19-10, 11-3) didn't score until a jumper by Bridges at the 11:45 mark, and then they went the final 3:57 of the half without a point.
"We made some shots and then got stops, and that's what it's all about," UTC coach Jim Foster said. "It's good to start that way. We moved the ball, and this team does a good job of getting the ball to people who are hot and passing up maybe a good shot for themselves to get a better shot for a teammate. That's a good characteristic for this team and a good team."
Helping the Mocs' cause was the play of Alicia Payne. The pesky 5-foot-9 junior guard didn't hit a single field goal in the game but had career highs of 11 assists and seven steals and made three free throws.
"She's disruptive. I mean that's the best word for her," Foster said. "It's not her speed. She's got a good sense and instinct, and she's not afraid to put her nose in places where other people are afraid to go. Her sense of timing is such that she makes a lot of plays because she doesn't have that fear."
UTC has played with a bull's-eye on its back all season in conference play. It was only intensified after nonconference wins over perennial national powers Tennessee and Stanford at home. Yet the Mocs ran the table for the second straight season in the conference -- earning their highest national ranking ever in the process -- and now their focus is to claim three wins and further solidify their spot in the NCAA tournament.
"We have a target on our backs," Bramblett said. "We're No. 18 in the nation, defending champs for the past two seasons, and everybody wants a piece of us. Mercer came for us; ETSU came for us. Everybody wants a piece of us, but the way we handle it is to execute, do what we need to do and prove we're the better team in the conference."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.