March 7, 2007
Final Stats
HOUSTON, Texas - UT Arlington senior forward Ashley Bobb admitted the first-half play during Thursday's quarterfinal game against Northwestern State "was not Maverick basketball."
So Bobb and junior center Tiffeny Riles took control of the game in the second half, combining for 26 points and nine rebounds in the Mavericks 62-53 win over the Demons at the O'Reilly Auto Parts Southland Conference Basketball Tournament at the Campbell Center here.
UT Arlington (22-8) won a school-record 17th consecutive game and advances to Friday's semifinals to face fifth-seed Texas-San Antonio at 2:30 p.m. Northwestern State, the tournament's eighth-seed, ends the year 10-20.
Riles led the Mavericks with 16 points and Bobb recorded her fourth double-double of the season with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Maryann Abanobi had 13 and Terra Wallace added 11. NSU was led by Tena Matthews' 20 points and 14 from Chassidy Jones.
Bobb took control in the opening minutes of the second half with a lay up on the Mavs first offensive possession then took the ball away from Tweet Williams in the backcourt and converted the lay up to give UTA a 29-27 lead with 19:16 left in the game. The back-to-back baskets triggered an 18-5 run for the Mavericks as they built a 43-32 lead after a Bobb lay up with 10:38 left in the game.
UTA kept the double-digit cushion for most of the half en route to Friday's semifinals. Riles continued to out match the Demon defenders after starter Ashli Barnum picked up her fourth foul in the first three minutes of the second half. Riles finished with 12 points in the second half while Bobb scored all of her 14 points in the second half and grabbed seven of her 11 rebounds.
"We were playing better defense in the second half and that allowed us to get easy transition points and I thought we did a better job on the offensive boards to get some easy baskets," said Bobb.
In the first half, UT Arlington jumped out to a 12-4 lead in the opening minutes of the game as Abanobi and Riles combined for all 12 points. Two Riles free throws gave the Mavs their eight-point lead with 14:18 to play in the first half.
But UTA struggled for the rest of the half. The Demons outrebounded UTA, 22-to-13 and used a 14-4 run in the final 6:51 to take a 27-25 halftime lead.
"Our focus at halftime was to tighten up our defense," said UT Arlington Head Women's Basketball Coach Donna Capps. "Defense has been our trademark. It wasn't so much that we were down by two points at halftime, but the fact our defense was so poor."
"I think we came out lackadaisical in the first half," said Bobb. "We realized no one is going to give us the tournament and (the first half) was a reality check for us," said Bobb.
And a wake-up call which the Mavericks answered just in time.
MAV NOTES: Wallace is now 11 points away from becoming the all-time leading scorer in UTA women's basketball history. She can tie current leader Natasha Johnson's 1,695 career points with 10 points... The 53 points allowed marks the 14th time this season UTA has held an opponent to 54-or-fewer points.
