The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga earned the No. 3 seed for next week's Southern Conference women's basketball tournament with a 65-50 win over Western Carolina on Saturday in Cullowhee, North Carolina.
The Mocs ended the regular season 13-16 overall but 8-6 in league play and will face No. 6 seed UNC Greensboro at 5:45 p.m. Thursday in Asheville, North Carolina.
Western Carolina finished the regular season 4-25, 0-14 in league games.
Eboni Williams led UTC with 15 points and had seven rebounds. Bria Dial also scored in double digits with 11 points, and she and Williams each had two steals. Arianne Whitaker was just shy of a double-double with nine points and eight rebounds in just 14 minutes.
"I felt like we pushed tempo today, and we settled down at times," first-year UTC coach Katie Burrows said after the game. "They did a good job in transition in the second half. We only gave up seven fast-break points, which was good."
The Catamounts got off to a 6-0 start, but the Mocs responded with an 18-6 run capped by the first of Dial's two 3-point shots. That put UTC up 18-12 with 5:42 to play in the second quarter. Western Carolina came back to tie the game at 18 with 3:49 to play in the period, but the Mocs responded with an 11-0 run and went into halftime leading 29-20.
UTC never relinquished its lead and started the fourth quarter with its third 11-0 run of the game to push the lead to 53-39 midway through the final frame and closed the game by making six of eight free throws.
The Mocs' Abbey Cornelius scored four of her six points in the final run and had a career-high 10 rebounds. Shelbie Davenport capped off that run with a 3-pointer and finished with eight points.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.