ARLINGTON - Senior transfer Marie Benson scored a team-high 18 points as the UTA women's basketball team fell to Marist, 73-57, in a battle of CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 teams on Thursday night at College Park Center.
 
With the loss, UTA falls to .500 on the year (5-5 overall), while Marist improves to 7-2 on the season.
 
Benson shot 8-of-13 from the field and 2-of-5 from the charity stripe to register her team-high 18 points. The Waco native also added nine boards and a pair of blocks on the night. Claire Chastain added 17 points and four rebounds, while Katie Ferrell chipped in with seven points, six rebounds and four assists. Terryn Milton registered six points and tied her season-high with six assists and Misty Dossey scored four points and pulled down a pair of rebounds.
 
Marist knocked down 45 percent (27-of-60) of their shots from the field, while UTA finished the evening shooting 40.7 percent from the floor (24-of-59). The Lady Mavs struggled in the third quarter, making just two of 14 attempts (14.3 percent) in the period.
 
"Well, obviously Marist is a really good basketball team," said head coach Krista Gerlich. "We told our kids before the game that when you're preparing for a motion-based offense like that, they can really exploit you very quickly. If you make a mistake defensively, they make you pay. They did a really good job of just reading what we were doing and when we had a breakdown, they made us pay; they found it very, very quickly."
 
"Offensively, we struggled. We're going to have to knock down some threes to be able to open it up on the inside for Marie, Misty and Emma and even Katie Ferrell. We definitely need to shoot the ball better."
 
The first half was played pretty even as both squads shot 40+ percent from the field, but the Red Foxes held a 6-point lead at the intermission (34-28). Marist blew the game open in the third quarter, holding the Lady Mavericks to just two field goals and outscoring UTA 16-5 in the period.
 
The Lady Mavs fought hard and got within 12 points (51-39) in the fourth quarter, but the visitors responded and pushed their lead to 19 points, before picking up the 73-57 win.
 
UTA will be back in action on Sunday afternoon (Dec. 22) when the welcome crosstown foe SMU to College Park Center. Tip-off is set for 2:00 p.m.