UT Arlington (6-6, 1-1) at Appalachian State (4-7, 1-1)
Thursday | 4 p.m. CT | Boone, N.C.

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By Michael Eldridge | @DFWSportsMike

ARLINGTON, Texas - Entering the 2015-16 season, UT Arlington coach Krista Gerlich challenged her players to be a threat offensively.

Heading into a three-game road trip that begins on Thursday at Appalachian State, UTA (6-6, 1-1 SBC) has responded with a spread offense that has featured six different leading scorers through 12 games.

"They all really worked on their individual game," Gerlich said of the player's response to her offseason challenge. "We had a lot of role players last year and had to put them in different spots. We had to be specific on what we were looking for. We couldn't be one-dimensional. Our guards have done a really good job in developing their offensive game."

Emerging as an all-around threat through the last four games, Cierra Johnson leads the pack with 10.3 points per game, scoring at least 15 points in three consecutive. On the defensive side of the ball, she is ninth in NCAA Division I with 3.3 steals per game and leads the conference overall with 40 steals.

Johnson attributes the defensive success to her length and ability to be in the right place at the right time, but that her offensive abilities have been helped along by her teammates. Amara Wainwright and LaShanda Green have heated up from 3-point land to open up the lane for Johnson to cruise through. Wainwright scored a career-high 24 points against UTSA, while Green converted on seven 3-pointers against Georgia State, one shy of UTA's single-game record.

"It has been great," Johnson said. "Everyone knows that I like to drive and that the others can shoot, so they play them tight and they can play off me a bit more. It works when our shooters are hitting shots because it not only opens it up for me, but also for our posts, because they have been shooting so well."

UTA has leaned on the same starting lineup for three of the last four games, and six games overall. The group was the Lady Mavs' lineup for the final 10 games of the previous season, helping to create chemistry that has shined during the recent run.

"It is just experience that you cannot manufacture," Gerlich said. "I feel like they are starting to gel and the time that we used in nonconference is starting to payout."

With Johnson's help on the defensive end, UTA has held the points off of turnovers margin in its last four games, turning its last opponent over 22 times to hold a 23-6 advantage in points. That advantage has helped win three of the last four games, as well as holding opponents to under 50 points during each victory.

"We set team goals in what we want to keep the opponent below," Green said. "We try to keep them 10 to 15 percent below their average. We talk about it at halftime and know we have to buckle down. It is a big deal to keep our defense highly ranked in scoring defense."

UTA's scoring defense is 28th in the nation, allowing 54.4 points per game. Thursday's opponent is scoring at a 64.4-point clip as the Mountaineers enter even in conference play at 1-1 and are 4-7 overall.

"They are in every ball game and are coached really well," Gerlich said. "They are long, they have some height to them and length in the perimeter and that gives us problems. We are going to have to take care of the basketball and make sure they don't get hot and make some runs."

The lone loss on UTA's conference slate came at the hand of a third-quarter run by Georgia State. The Panthers outscored UTA 25-2 during the third to overcome a double-digit deficit, holding on to down the Lady Mavs' comeback attempt.

The importance of the three-game trip is on the mind of Green as she hopes to open the trip on a high note.

"It is big because you have to take games that we should," Green said. "I feel like this is a game that we should be able to win. We let that game against Georgia State slip away so we have to get this one."