UTC’s Alicia Payne against Mercer in the SoCon Women championship game. Utc won 65-57.ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Alicia Payne is exactly what University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach Jim Foster doesn’t want in a point guard.
And that’s OK – because she knows how to win and what it takes to win.
The 5-foot-9 Payne was named the Southern Conference tournament’s most outstanding player after averaging 11.7 points, 4.3 assists and two steals for the Mocs, who claimed their fourth consecutive conference title and 17th overall with a 65-57 win over Mercer on Sunday.
Foster has been imploring his lone senior to be more of a leader in recent weeks. He kept saying “she can do more,” implying her scoring, and Payne – who hails from Memphis and is nicknamed “Red” – responded with a tournament average that was three times her career scoring average and nearly twice her season average.
“Red has grown a lot,” Foster said. “I’m very demanding of my point guard, but she’s the opposite of what I demand. I want them to be a talker, want them to be demonstrative, an organizer. I want them to know what I call and where I would call it. Somewhere in the blip of the last 10 games, though, a metamorphosis has taken place.