March 9, 2007
Final Stats
HOUSTON - UT Arlington senior guard Terra Wallace scored a game-high 26 points to become the program's all-time leading scorer and lead the Mavericks into the championship game of the O'Reilly Auto Parts Southland Conference Basketball Tournament with a 70-52 victory over Texas-San Antonio Friday afternoon.
UT Arlington (23-8) tied a school record with its 23rd win of the season. The Mavericks have won a school-record 18-straight games and will advance to Saturday's finals against Stephen F. Austin at 2 p.m. The game will be televised on Fox Sports. Texas-San Antonio ends its season 14-16.
Wallace's second free throw with 2:48 to play in the first half gave her 1,696 career points, surpassing Natasha Johnson. Maryann Abanobi scored 12 and Tiffeny Riles added 10. Senior forward Ashley Bobb had 11 rebounds as the Mavs dominated the glass, 49-to-24.
The Mavs, who lost to UTSA in triple overtime last year in the conference tournament semifinals after leading 16-0 in the first half, built a 13-2 lead early, but the lead evaporated in the half and was cut to 28-22 at halftime after a 3-pointer by Roadrunner Andrea Garcia.
"(Last year's game) was the furthest thing from our minds," said senior Tojjinay Thompson. "We were going to keep our intensity, whether we are up by 15 points or down by 20."
"I was very proud of our girls tonight," said UT Arlington Women's Basketball Coach Donna Capps. "UTSA has a lot of scoring power and they are a very talented team, but I thought we did a good job of making adjustments during the game and played well defensively."
The Mavericks never trailed in the game, but UTSA refused to die as they stayed as close a four points, 43-39, after a Davis 3-pointer with 11:51 left in the game.
But UTA, in particular Wallace, dominated the rest of the way. Wallace scored 11 points in the final 12 minutes of the game as the Mavs stretched the lead to double digits, 55-45, after Riles converted a three-point play with 3:59 left in the game. The Mavs made 10-of-11 free throws in the final 4:00 of the game the seal the win.
MAV NOTES: The 52 points allowed marks the 15th time this season UTA has held an opponent to 54-or-fewer points... Wallace now has 1,711 career points at UT Arlington... The Mavs are playing in their third conference tournament final in the last four seasons... UTA set a school record with 24 wins on Saturday... A win Saturday would also a the league's for consecutive conference wins with 19.
