NEW ORLEANS, La. – The Lady Mavs, currently riding a five-game winning streak, will take on seventh-seeded South Alabama in the semifinal round of the 2019 Sun Belt Championship.  

Sun Belt Semifinal Matchup: No. 2 UTA (23-6 Overall) vs. No. 7 South Alabama (23-9 Overall)
When: Friday, March 15 | 2 p.m.
Where: Lakefront Arena | New Orleans, La.
Live Video | Live Stats

REGULAR SEASON CHAMPS
Coach Gerlich and the Lady Mavs wrapped up the 2018-19 regular season with a 23-6 overall record (15-3 SBC). UTA, with a hard-fought 44-41 win at Texas State, earned the program's first Sun Belt regular season crown (4th overall; Southland Conference Regular-Season Titles in 2004-05, 2006-07, 2008-09).

A LIL POSTSEASON HARDWARE
Just days after securing the program's first Sun Belt regular reason title, the UTA women's basketball team saw head coach Krista Gerlich and redshirt-senior Cierra Johnson receive Sun Belt postseason accolades. Coach Gerlich was named the league's Coach of the Year for the first time, while C. Johnson was named Co-Player of the Year and earned a spot on the All-Sun Belt First Team.

Voting for the Sun Belt individual awards and All-Sun Belt teams were conducted by the league's 12 head coaches along with a selected media panel.

Little Rock's Ronjanae DeGray and C. Johnson were voted Sun Belt Co-Players of the Year. Troy's Sky'Lynn Holmes was named Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year, Louisiana's Brandi Williams was voted Sun Belt Freshman of the Year and Georgia State's Allison Johnson was named Sun Belt Newcomer of the Year.

Coach Gerlich and the Lady Mavs wrapped up the 2018-19 regular season with a 23-6 overall record (15-3 SBC). UTA, ranked No. 25 in the latest CollegeInsider.com Mid Major Poll, earned the program's first Sun Belt regular season crown (4th overall; Southland Conference Regular-Season Titles in 2004-05, 2006-07, 2008-09) and have won 20+ games for just the 10th time in program history. The Lady Mavericks also won 11 of their last 12 games to close the regular season.

As a team, UTA finished the regular season leading the conference in scoring margin (+12.8), field goal percentage (.451), three-point field goal percentage (.378), assists (17.3) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.2), while also ranking in the top-3 in multiple categories, including scoring, scoring defense, blocks and steals.

Johnson, the 2017 Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year, missed the majority of last season due to a knee injury, but she returned for her final year at UTA and has started every game for the Lady Mavs and led the team in scoring (15.0), steals (58) and free-throw percentage (.829) during the regular season. C. Johnson is now UTA's leader in career steals and is ranked third all-time in Sun Belt history in steals with 308, and counting. Earlier this season she became the 19th woman in UTA history to join the 1,000-point club and now ranks 8th on UTA's all-time scoring list with 1,340 career points. The Bedford, Texas native has scored in double figures in 16 of the last 17 games (22 games total) and notched a career-high 31 points to go with a career-best 12 boards in an 88-65 win over Troy (March 2). 

20+ WINS & EYEING A PROGRAM RECORD
UTA's 60-56 OT win at ULM on Saturday, Feb. 23 secured the squad's 20th win of the season and made the Lady Mavs the first Sun Belt team to hit the 20-win plateau.

The Feb. 23rd win also gave the Lady Mavericks the 10th 20-win season in program history and the 2nd of Coach Gerlich's UTA tenure.

UTA is closing in on the program record for wins in a season. The program record is 24 wins in a single season, which was achieved by the Donna Capps led Lady Mavs squad in 2006-2007 (24-9 overall).

LOOKIN' FOR 100
UTA head coach Krista Gerlich currently has a 99-81 record as the leader of the Lady Mavs program. The next Lady Maverick victory will give Coach Gerlich her 100th at UTA.

ESPN BRACKETOLOGY | MARCH 13
In Charlie Crème's latest ESPN Bracketology, he has the Lady Mavs as the champions of the Sun Belt and in the NCAA Tourney as a No. 14 seed facing third-seeded Maryland in the opening round in College Park, Md.

COLLEGEINSIDER.COM MID-MAJOR POLL
The 2019 Sun Belt Regular Season champion UTA women's basketball team was ranked No. 25 in this week's CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top-25 Poll that was released on Tuesday, March 12.

This marks the second consecutive week that the Lady Mavericks have been ranked in the top 25 in the Mid-Major Poll. UTA is one of three Sun Belt Conference schools to appear in the Mid-Major Poll along with Little Rock (RV, 11) and Troy (RV, 8).

For the third week in a row, Gonzaga held down the top in the poll (26 first-place votes; 762 points), while South Dakota State took the No. 2 position. FGCU (704 points), Drake (685 points) and South Dakota (656 points) rounded out the top-five.

The CollegeInsider.com Women's Mid-Major Top-25 is now in its ninth season of existence. The poll is made up of teams from the following conferences: America East, Atlantic Sun, Big Sky, Big South, Big West, Colonial, Horizon, Independents, Ivy, Metro Atlantic, Mid-American, Mid-Eastern, Missouri Valley, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Patriot, Southern, Southland, Southwestern, Summit, Sun Belt, West Coast, Western Athletic and is voted on by a panel of 31 coaches.

LAST TIME OUT | SUN BELT CHAMPS | LADY MAVS CLAIM REGULAR_SEASON TITLE WITH WIN OVER TEXAS STATE
The UTA women's basketball, the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Sun Belt Championships, erased an 11-point halftime lead and defeated Texas State, 44-41, to capture a share of the 2018-19 Sun Belt Regular Season Title on Saturday afternoon at Strahan Arena. The Lady Mavs improve to 23-6 overall and 15-3 in Sun Belt play with the win.

UTA earned the program's first Sun Belt regular season crown (4th overall; Southland Conference Regular-Season Titles in 2004-05, 2006-07, 2008-09)
Freshman Terryn Milton and junior Aysia Evans each tallied 12 points to lead the Lady Mavs. Milton was a perfect 3-for-3 from the 3-point line, while Evans added three steals off the bench. Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year candidate Cierra Johnson finished with nine points and five boards and Katie Ferrell chipped in with 11 boards and three steals.

Texas State, who held the Lady Mavs scoreless over the final 6:19 of the second quarter, closed the second period on a 12-0 run to take a 28-17 lead into the locker room the break.

UTA bounced back and outscored the Bobcats 10-3 in the third quarter to cut the Texas State lead to four points and get back into the game.

Milton's 3-pointer at the 8:16 mark in the fourth marked the first bucket of the frame for UTA. From then on the Lady Mavs used their full-court, man-to-man pressure to frustrate and force the Bobcats into bad shots and turnovers.

With the score knotted at 36-36, C. Johnson drove baseline and picked up a three-point play to give the Lady Mavs a 39-36 lead (3:26). A few possessions later, with the score tied at 40-40, Evans knocked down a corner triple to put UTA up for good.

Texas State had one final chance to tie the game. With 11 seconds left on the clock, the Bobcats struggled to get the ball inbounds on the sideline and a tough entry pass led to a travel and the Lady Mavericks were able to hold off the Bobcats for the huge win.

3X
Cierra Johnson was named College Sports Madness Sun Belt Player of the Week on Monday, Feb. 11. The award marked the third Player of the Week honor for C. Johnson this season (2 College Sports Madness, 1 Sun Belt Conference).
>> College Sports Madness Sun Belt Player of the Week (Feb. 11)
>> Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week (Jan. 14)
>> College Sports Madness Sun Belt Player of the Week (Jan. 14)

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