For the UTC women's basketball team it was All That Jazz Saturday night in McKenzie Arena with season (blocks, rebounds) and career (points) bests for Jas Joyner in a 61-46 win against visiting UT-Martin.
The Mocs improved to 5-2 on the season and have won 17 in a row at home over two seasons with No. 1 UConn coming to town Monday. UT-Martin is 2-4.
Joyner scored a career best 31 points and set season marks for blocks (7 and leads the nation in blocks per game average, 4.7 blcks/game) and rebounds (16), while Red Payne added four points, four rebounds, five assists and two steals.
"When they went to a zone defense in the second quarter to slow down our tempo, Jas was able to move well behind the zone without the ball," said UTC coach Jim Foster.
"Our players did a good job of finding the seams in the zone and also getting to ball to the open players."
First Half: UT-Martin jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first 90 seconds on a 3-pointer by Myah Taylor and a layup by Haley Howard before the Mocs went on a 13-3 run to lead 13-8 at 4:02 on a pair of free throws by Payne.
Joyner hit back-to-back 3s plus a layup in that run.
"When I hit my second 3 I knew I was on tonight," said Joyner. "Last year in the NCAA playoffs against Pittsburgh I had open shots and didn't have the confidence to take the shot, but I worked on my outside shot all summer and as a junior I feel I have to step up and have the confidence to shoot the ball."
The Mocs led by eight at 22-14 at the end of one, but UT-Martin went on a 12-2 run to pull within two at 26-24 at 5:09 of the second quarter. Anna Claire Noblit came off the bench with a 3-pointer and Joyner added four more as the Mocs led 35-30 at intermission.
Third Quarter: UT-Martin, who was runner-up in the Ohio Valley Conference in 2014, opened the second half similar to the first with a 4-0 run to trail 35-34, but UTC outscored the visitors 12-0 the rest of the quarter for a 47-34 advantage.
Fourth Quarter: UT-Martin never got within single digits in the final 10 minutes and trailed by as many as 17 at 61-44 at 1:38 on a jumper by Keiana Gilbert.
DaiJia Ruffin led UT-Martin with 17 points off the bench, while Haley Howard added 10.
Last Moc to Score 30: Kayla Christopher who scored 30 points in a 85-69 win against Furman Jan. 2011 was the last player to score at least 30 in a game until Joyner's 31 tonight
UTC 61, UT-Martin 44
UT-Martin 14 - 16 - 4 - 12 -- 46
UTC 22 - 13 - 12 - 14 -- 61
FG%: UTC (45.1%) UTM 40.9%)
FT%: UTC (90%) UTM (66.7%)
3-Pt FG%: UTC (40% ) UTM (26.7%)
Rebounds: UTC, 35-20
Points in the Paint: 28-28
Points Off Turnovers: UTC, 12-9
2nd Chance Points UTC, 14-7
contact B.B. Branton at william.branton@comcast.net