March 2, 2005
Box Score
ARLINGTON, Texas - Senior Tamesha Graves entered tonight's game having scored only 41 points on the season, but the forward from Carrollton made the most of her opportunity this evening as she poured in a career-high 22 points in helping Texas-Arlington extend its home court win streak to 16 games with a 65-51 victory over Texas State.
The victory improved the Mavs to 17-9 on the season and 12-3 in Southland Conference play, while the Bobcats dropped to 13-13, 10-5 in league play. Louisiana-Monroe kept pace with the Mavs as they handed Lamar a 64-46 defeat in Monroe, La.
TXST took its first lead in nearly 10 minutes when Erica Putnam connected on a foul line jumper to put the 'Cats ahead 38-37 with 12:18 to play. Graves answered that basket by grabbing a missed shot and hit the basket and completed the three-point play.
The Mavs would take from that point on as UTA would outscore TXST 26-13 the remainder of the contest. Rola Ogunoye would score the next five points before Graves would push the advantage to 10 points with a three-pointer.
Graves and Ogunoye would close out their personal 15-0 run with an Ogunoye layup that turned the one-point deficit into a 14-point lead. Ogunoye would finish the game with a season-high 24 points and 13 rebounds.
Tabitha Wesley would get in on the scoring act as following an Ally Kelly three-pointer, Wesley answered with one of her own and later hit a driving layup in traffic to push the lead back to 15 points with 4:27 left to play.
UTA would push to its largest lead of 17 points on a pair of Graves free throws with under a minute to play before Ashley McGruder would hit a running shot at the buzzer for the 14-point margin of victory.
Tamara Thompson and league leading scorer Tori Talbert got out of the blocks quickly for TXST as the two helped the 'Cats open up a 15-9 lead with just over 10 minutes to play in the first half.
The Mavs would get back into the game via the long ball as Wesley and Graves hit triples to tie the game 19-19 with 5:08 remaining. A pair of buckets by Talbert and one by Thompson surged TXST back to a four-point lead.
UTA would the half on a 9-3 run as Ogunoye scored seven straight points and Terra Wallace hit a layup. The Cats closed out the first half scoring as Jeana Hoffman hit a three-point shot as time expired off a perfectly executed inbounds play to send the teams to recess with UTA ahead 30-28.
Graves and Ogunoye were joined in double figures by Wesley's 11 points on 2-for-3 shooting from behind the arc. Wallace added six points, five rebounds, six assists and four steals. Ogunoye now has 1,564 points in her career and needs only four points to pass Carolyn Smith for second on the all-time scoring list.
Talbert the 'Cats with 17 points and six rebounds before the leaving the game with an injury at the 8:01 mark. Thompson added nine points and six rebounds.
UTA can clinch its first ever SLC regular season championship with a victory over Nicholls State at Texas Hall on March 4. Tip-off is set for 5:45 p.m.
