CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team opened the season at home with a decisive 68-53 win over McNeese State in the opening round of the Preseason WNIT.
 
Junior Jasmine Joyner (Southaven, Miss.) recorded her seventh career double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds while knocking down six shots in 32 minutes. She was 5-of-12 from the floor and 5-of-7 from the free throw line and pulled down 10 defensive boards.
 
Sophomore Keiana Gilbert (Pulaski, Tenn.) led all scorers with 19 points, making 9-of-13 from the field and pulled down six rebounds. Junior Chelsey Shumpert (Paducah, Ky.) had 11 points with three 3-pointers.
 
The teams traded buckets to start the game before the Mocs put together a 9-2 run to get out to a 16-9 lead with three minutes to play in the first quarter. McNeese State tightened it up and it was 18-14 at the first break. In the second quarter the Mocs pushed its lead out to 36-21 on a 3-pointer from junior transfer Queen Alford (Decatur, Ga.) who finished the game with eight points, four rebounds and two steals.
 
UTC led the Cowgirls 38-24 at halftime.
 
The Mocs grabbed their largest lead of the game in the third quarter. Keiana Gilbert followed up an offensive rebound from Joyner with a layup to make it 53-28 with 3:16 to play in the frame.
 
Senior Alicia Payne (Memphis, Tenn.) had four points and four boards with one steal in 29 minutes in the season opener and junior Moses Johnson (Atlanta, Ga.) had a team-best three steals to go along with seven points and seven rebounds.
 
Chattanooga outrebounded the Cowgirls 43-28 with 18 offensive boards that translated to a 22-11 advantage on second chance points. UTC had 44 points in the paint compared to McNeese State's 22 while the Cowgirls scored 18 points off 14 Chattanooga turnovers to the Mocs' 15 points on 11 miscues.
 
Amber Donnes had a team-high 16 points off the bench for McNeese State with three rebounds while Victoria Rachal had 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Frederica Haywood had a team-high six rebounds and Hannah Cupit dished out six assists.
 
The Mocs will host Butler Sunday afternoon in a regular season game at the McKenzie Arena. Tip is set for 2 p.m. Tickets are available at the McKenzie Arena box office or online at GoMocs.com.
 
On Tuesday, Chattanooga will travel to Bloomington, Ind., for the second round of the Preseason WNIT to take on Indiana who posted a 98-33 win over Tennessee State earlier Friday to move on.