March 9, 2017 Recap | Final Stats | Quotes | Photo Gallery 
No. 2 UTA (21-7) XX vs. No. 10 South Alabama (11-19) xx
Thursday, March 9, 2017 • Lakefront Arena • New Orleans, La.
Postgame Notes
- UTA earned its first-ever Sun Belt Championship win, defeating South Alabama 65-53 in the SBC Quarterfinals at Lakefront Arena. UTA improved to 22-7 overall, coming just two wins shy of its all-time record. South Alabama's season concluded with a 11-20 record.
- Scoring six points in the first quarter, Rebekah VanDijk past Kim Pruitt for ninth on UTA's all-time scoring list. VanDijk has 1,216 in her career. She is just 10 points away from Julie Coleman in eighth, who has 1,226.
- Cierra Johnson jumped Page Smithers-Wojciak (5th) for fifth in UTA's all-time steals list as well as Natasha Johnson's 236 as she is now fourth in program history with 238 steals. Johnson had a game-high four steals. Johnson received her SBC Defensive Player of the Year award prior to the game.
- UTA knocked down its first 15 free-throw attempts and finished 24-27 for the game. The total tied a season high and was the most since playing Eastern New Mexico in December. VanDijk led the way with 11 of her 12 converted.
- UTA improved to 6-3 all-time against South Alabama, meeting for the first time in the postseason. UTA swept the three meetings this season.
- After shooting 70.0 percent in the first quarter (7-10) UTA fell drastically down to 35.3 overall. UTA would not hit more than four field goals in a quarter over the final three.
- UTA advances into the semifinals on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. UTA will play the winner of Troy and Arkansas State. UTA is 4-7 all-time in semifinals, last playing in the 2010 Southland semis, falling 70-61 to Lamar.