NEW ORLEANS -- The Troy Trojans will play for the Sun Belt Conference Women's Basketball championship on Sunday after defeating UTA, 88-59, on Saturday at Lakefront Arena.

The third-seeded Trojans (21-10) will play No. 5 Louisiana (20-10), which knocked off top-seeded Little Rock, at 6 p.m. (CT) on Sunday for an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. Troy is looking to become the first team to win consecutive Sun Belt Tournament titles since Little Rock in 2011-12.

Jayla Chills scored a game-high 21 points and Claresa Banks turned in a career-high 20 points to lead the Trojans. Caitlyn Ramirez posted her 12th double-double of the season with 13 points and 12 rebounds. La-Tia Fils-Aime' chipped in with a career-high 12 rebounds.

The Mavericks (22-8) scored the first basket of the game, but the Trojans were relentless on both ends of the court and exploded on a 14-1 run and didn't allow a UTA field goal for over five minutes.

Cierra Johnson tallied 14 points and four rebounds for the Mavericks while Rebekah VanDijk totaled 11 points and four rebounds as they were the only two in double-figures for the Mavericks on the evening.

UTA was able to close the scoring gap on the Trojans to six early in the second quarter but the Trojans dominated the glass (64-30) and built a 12-point lead at the half. The Trojans' relentless pressure kept the Mavericks from many opportunities as they outscored UTA, 21-11, in the third quarter and 27-20 in the fourth as they closed out the game.

Troy led for nearly 39 minutes in the game.

Last season, Troy earned its second ever NCAA Tournament berth by defeated Little Rock, 61-60, in the title game.