Box Score | Southern Conference Championship Interactive Bracket

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Western Carolina women's basketball escaped Fleming Gymnasium with an 86-80 win over UNCG, on the Spartans senior day, Friday. The Catamounts close out the Southern Conference regular season on a two-game winning streak and earn their first SoCon road victory.

WCU improves to 11-18 on the year and 3-11 in the Southern Conference. UNCG falls to 6-23 and 1-13 in SoCon play.

Freshman guard Ace Easter scored a career-high 23 points, her second straight 20-point game and third of the season. Redshirt sophomore Brianne Mack was not to be left out as she also had a career-high with 16 points. Lane dished out a career-high nine assists and also poured in a season-high 14 points.

Leading 45-33 at the half, Western Carolina had to weather a scoring storm by UNCG in the second half. In a span of four minutes, in the opening of the final 20 minutes, the Spartans went on a 10-0 run to slice the Catamounts lead to just two, 45-43. Senior guard Lane halted the UNCG run when she hit a jumper at 15:08 to push the WCU lead back to four, 47-43.

Lane's jumper began an 8-0 run by Western Carolina capped off by a jumper by Mack. Jarae Savage hit a Spartan three to cut the lead back to five but WCU answered with four free throws by Erika Joseph and a three-pointer by Makensey Campbell to give the Catamounts its largest lead of the second half, 58-46 with 12:08 remaining. UNCG would not go quietly and in the ensuing five minutes the Spartans went on a 13-3 run to only trail the Catamounts 61-59 with 7:21 left. The Spartans whittled the Catamount lead down to one twice.

With Western Carolina clinging to a 69-68 lead, with 3:37 remaining, Lane was fouled and calmly sank both free throws to give the Catamounts some breathing room 71-68. The Lane free throws was the catalyst for a WCU 8-0 run that all but closed the book on the game.

Western Carolina went to the free throw line 40 times, the third most attempts in a game in school history, hitting 35. In the final three plus minutes of the game, WCU was 15-of-16 from the free throw line to ice the game.

The Catamounts exploded out of the gate in the first half building a 27-10 lead the first 12 minutes. Western Carolina built a game-high 19 point lead, 35-16, with 5:20 left in the first half.

In the final five minutes UNCG used its senior day momentum to outscore WCU 17-10 to trail 45-33 heading into the locker room. The Spartans would use the lift from the final minutes of the first half to make the game interesting in the final 20 minutes.

Western Carolina shot 50 percent from the field and 87.5 percent from the free throw line. The Catamounts were out-rebounded by UNCG 43-37 and WCU ripped down just seven defensive boards. Western Carolina also had 25 turnovers resulting in 25 Spartan points. The Catamounts also benefitted from UNCG miscues turning 21 Spartan turnovers into 21 points.

A total of four Western Carolina players scored in double figures. Besides the career-high performances from Easter (23) and Mack (16) and Lane's season-high (14) Justin Taylor added 11.

Taylor now has 475 points this season ranking her 11th in the WCU record books for most points scored in a season. Taylor has also scored 805 career points in just two years as a Catamount.

UNCG's Lucy Mason led all scorers with 24 points and Savage added 23. India Timpton rounded out the double figure scoring for the Spartans with 13.

Western Carolina has locked in the No. 7 seed in the 2015 Southern Conference Championships to be held next week in Asheville. As the No. 7 seed, the Catamounts will face the No. 2 seed at 4:30 p.m. in Kimmel Arena on the UNC Asheville campus. ETSU will most likely by the No. 2 seed and the team WCU will face.