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ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Taylor Hall collected 16 points, nine rebounds, four assists and three blocked shots to lead top-seeded and defending champion Chattanooga to a 66-57 win over Georgia Southern in the quarterfinals of the Southern Conference Women's Basketball Tournament Saturday afternoon in Kimmel Arena.

Anna Claire Knight scored 20 points for Georgia Southern to put her over 1,000 for her career. The junior reached the mark by making a 3-pointer from the wing with 3:32 left in the contest. Sierra Kirkland scored a career-high 13 points to go along with five rebounds, and Danielle Spencer scored eight, all in the first half.

Aryanna Gilbert netted 10 points for the Mocs, who advance to the semifinal round to face the winner of Appalachian State vs. Elon. Ashlen Dewart scored eight, and Faith Dupree netted seven. It was Chattanoog's 38th straight win against SoCon competition.

The Eagles used a 15-6 run to trim a 15-point, second-half deficit to six points on a layup by Angel McGowan with 9:14 to play. The Eagles defended well for the entire shot clock on Chattaooga's next possession, but Tatianna Jackson put up a long triple from the wing that went off the window and in as the buzzer sounded.

"That was a dagger," said Knight. "It would have been nice to see what would have happened if that didn't go in."

The play helped put the Mocs firmly back in control, and Jasmine Joyner hit two jumpers in a row to increase the lead to 13 points with 5:09 left. Knight's 3-pointer that put her over 1,000 points cut the lead to 59-50, and the Eagles got a defensive stop but Knight had a jumper rim out  on GSU's trip down the floor. Hall hit a free throw to make the cushion 10, got a steal and fed Alicia Payne for a fastbreak layup that made the score 62-50 and sealed the win.

"I'm proud of our resiliency today," said Georgia Southern coach Chris Vozab. "We obviously didn't get off to a very good start, but our kids kept fighting and kept fighting. We settled in a little bit after that, and I thought Sierra did a great job, especially late in the first half, running the floor like she did and getting us some easy baskets."

Chattanooga broke the game open as the Mocs used an 18-2 run to build a 22-6 cushion midway through the first half. The Mocs held the Eagles without a field goal for 12:11 during the stretch.

Trailing 29-12, Georgia Southern made up a little ground before the break by scoring the final six points of the half.  Knight scored four, and Spencer hit a jumper for two of her team-high eight points in the period.

"We were a little bit out of sorts on the offensive end, and then defensively, I thought we were okay in the half-court, but we weren't finishing possessions," said Vozab. "We gave up some offensive boards that really hurt us, and we let them get loose in transition to put ourselves in a hole early on."

Georgia Southern shot 61 percent in the second half to get back in the contest and shot 43 percent for the game after hitting just 7-of-26 in the first period. The Eagles see their season come to an end with a 10-21 record.

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