Feb. 12, 2011

Final Stats

Arlington, Texas - Texas State at UT Arlington Photo Gallery

Playing at home has been good for the Mavericks and it was especially good against Texas State Saturday afternoon as they rolled to a 79-63 win. UT Arlington improved to 7-15 overall and 4-6 in conference action.

"I think our effort was much better," said head coach Samantha Morrow. "We did some good things today and I really challenged our freshmen to do some things because they didn't do much against Sam Houston State."

Once against Tamara Simmons proved why she is the Mavs leading scorer, finishing with a game high 25 points on 10-of-20 from the field, including 2-of-7 from 3-point range and a perfect 3-of-3 from the charity stripe.

After three ties, the Mavericks offense and defense got on the same page as they led by as many as seven at 24-17 with 7:54 on the clock.

UTA jumped out to their largest lead of 12 (36-24) at the 1:31 mark following a jumper by Tamara Simmons. Simmons led the Mavs with 13 first half points while teammate Shalyn Martin added nine.

It was Texas State's free throws that allowed them to stay within striking distance as they connected on 12 of 16 from the charity stripe in the first half. The Bobcats cut into the Mavericks lead right before the break at 36-28 with a pair of freebies.

The Mavericks finished the half shooting a season best 47.8 (11-of-23) percent to the Bobcats 25.9 (7-of-7) from the field.

UTA came out of the break fired up, starting the half on a 10-3 run to lead by 15 at 46-31. The Bobcats clawed their way to within six points (58-52) at the 7:45 mark following a pair of Demi Clinch free throws.

That would be the closest the Bobcats would get as Simmons and freshman Briana Walker led UTA on a 14-3 run to lead by as many as 19 with 2:28 remaining in the game. Walker finished with a season-high 16 points and eight rebounds.

The Mavericks maintained the lead the rest of the way and shut down the Bobcats offense.

UT Arlington finished the game shooting 47.5 (28-of-59) percent from the floor to the Bobcats 31 (18-of-58) percent. Texas State finished the game connecting on 23-of-32 from the free throw line. UTA recorded a season-high 42 points in the paint.

Martin finished the game with 11 points and six rebounds in 33 minutes of action.

Diamond Ford led Texas State with 13 points while Chika Ofoegbu grabbed a team high eight rebounds.

Up next to the Mavericks is road match up against Stephen F. Austin on Wednesday, February 16. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.