Davis, Joyner among top Scrappy Awards honorees

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga seniors Keionta Davis (football) and Jasmine Joyner (women’s basketball) took home athlete of the year honors Wednesday night at the Coca-Cola Scrappy Awards at the Tivoli Theater.

Derrick Craine, a senior running back this past season, was named the scholar-athlete of the year, while women’s basketball coach Jim Foster was named coach of the year.

Davis was the Southern Conference defensive player of the year, finishing his final season at UTC with a league-leading 10.5 sacks and 11.5 tackles for loss while earning numerous All-America honors. He finished ninth in the national defensive player of the year voting.

Joyner was the SoCon defensive player of the year, finishing her career with 437 blocks, eighth all-time in NCAA history. She was second in the country in blocks this past season, averaging 3.8 per game while adding 13.1 points and 10.5 rebounds per game.

Foster led the Mocs to a 21-11 record against one of the toughest nonconference schedules in the country. They finished 12-2 in conference play and overcame a double-digit second-half deficit to defeat Mercer 61-59 in the conference tournament title game and earn their 18th conference championship and 15th NCAA tournament appearance.

That team also won the award for comeback of the year.

Craine was named scholar-athlete of the year for the second consecutive year. He was a first-team Academic All-American this season after being a second-team honoree as a junior.

Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress. com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.