The Lady Bears entered Saturday's home finale with so much on the line, it would not have been a surprise if they had to battle for 40 minutes in hopes of getting a close victory.

Instead, Miles played arguably its most exceptional game of the season when it needed it most. The Lady Bears (18-7, 13-4) dismantled rival Tuskegee 73-58 on Senior Day to win the school's first SIAC Western Division title. The victory was the 13th straight home victory and capped a perfect 11-0 mark at Knox-Windham Gymnasium this season, the best in the history of the program. The Golden Tigerettes (14-12, 10-7) never led, trailing by as many as 25 points in the second half as the team became unraveled by the pressure Miles applied at both ends of the floor.

Four players - Victoria Sutton, Najla Shamsid-Deen, Sakina Wynn and Jaylen Snipes - were playing their final home game. But it was Sutton who really went out with a bang. She scored 26 points, going 10-of-10 from the free throw line while also knocking down four 3-pointers - all career-highs. She got the party started when she drained a 3-ball on her first shot attempt to get the Lady Bears on the board. Five different players would score, the last being Kahyanne Bolton, to help Miles to an 11-0 lead halfway through the opening period.

Tuskegee could not have picked a better moment to have a dreadful start. The Golden Tigerettes missed their first 12 shots and turned the ball over nine times to help Miles race out to the big lead. They finally got on the board with two free throws by India Blakely with 2:49 left in the first. But when Sutton drained her second triple, Miles was ahead 16-2. Ashaila Jackson finally made a shot from the field with 1:14 left but TU would go 2-of-15 from the floor over the first 10 minutes and trailed 16-8.

The game was still up for grabs in the second quarter as Tuskegee cut its deficit to four points on three different occasions. But they could not contain Mya Millner, who was active on the boards and around the basket. Millner found herself making multiple trips to the free throw line and she kept knocking them down, going 6-of-6 from the stripe. But when she stepped out and buried a baseline jumper with less than a minute to go before halftime, Miles would lead by 11 points and it capped a quarter where she scored 10 of her 13 points. The Golden Tigerettes would trail by double figures the rest of the game and went into the break down 32-19.

The Lady Bears would blow the game open in the third quarter. The trio of Sutton, Wynn and Raiana Johnson scored the first 25 of Miles' 26 points in the period. The other came from Charlisa Wellington, who split two free throws with six seconds left to push the Miles advantage to 58-33 - its largest of the game - heading into the fourth quarter.

From there, the game was more of a celebration for the Lady Bears. When Johnson scored with 3:35 left, the lead was still 25 points and coach Phillip Wallace, Jr. went to his reserves to finish the game. He allowed for single substitutions for Sutton and Shamsid-Deen to allow the capacity crowd to shower them with adulation as the only four-year seniors on the squad.

Blakely had 14 points, Shelle Daniels added 11 points and 9 rebounds, and Lena Yoonis finished with 10 points and 8 rebounds for Tuskegee. Johnson (13, points, 14 rebounds, 5 blocks) posted her third double-double in the past four games and Wynn added 12 points for Miles, which closes the regular season on the road at LeMoyne-Owen on Tuesday. Tip-off is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.