Jan. 12, 2008
Box Score
ARLINGTON, Texas - UT Arlington women's basketball coach Samantha Morrow says she didn't promise her team a day off of practice if the Mavericks beat Northwestern State.
Instead, she promised a day off if the Mavericks "didn't have anything to work on" when the Southland Conference game at Texas Hall was finished. Suffice it to say that UTA players will have plenty of free time on Sunday after a 79-62 convincing victory against Northwestern State.
With the victory, UTA (7-6, 2-0) starts the SLC season undefeated.
Northwestern State (7-8, 0-2) is still searching for its first league victory.
"We took care of everything we needed to take care of," Morrow said. "We came out with a lot of intensity and really took it to them in the first. I don't consider it a blowout, but in the first half, we played really well - especially on defense."
Senior center Tiffeny Riles led UTA's balanced attack with 13 points. Riles was one of five Mavericks in double figures. Candice Champion scored 10 points in 13 minutes. Shalyn Martin had 11 points and team-high eight rebounds. Tamara Simmons had 11 points, seven assists and three steals, while Erin Dixon added 10 points on 5 of 9 shooting from the field.
Tena Matthews led the Demons with 21 points, and Ashli Barnum added 20. But the hole Northwestern State dug itself because of UTA's defensive pressure and their own shooting problems (27.6 percent) proved too much to overcome.
UTA opened the game on a 15-3 run - thanks to 7-for-7 shooting from the field and seven points by Maryann Abanobi. By the time the teams took a break for the second media timeout at the 12-minute mark, UTA had a 19-point lead after a Simmons 3-pointter. From there, the lead continued grow, and UTA held a 27-point lead at halftime.
"We came out focused and ready to play, and we wanted to make sure we were active on defense," said Martin, who added four assists to her double-figure scoring performance. "This is a good win because we're off to a good start. Coaches says that good defense leads to offense, but I guess we had to see it to believe it."
Northwestern State cut UTA's lead to 61-41 with 9:31 left in the game as Morrow continued to substitute liberally as the game clock wound. But the Mavericks responded with a 7-0 run near the five-minute mark - capped by a Meghan Nelson layup - to remove any doubt about the game's outcome.
The Mavericks return to the court at 6:30 p.m. Thursday on the road against Nicholls State.
