NEW ORLEANS – A 4th-quarter comeback which saw the #2-seeded UT Arlington women's basketball team (23-7) erase a 10-point deficit came up just short Friday afternoon as the Lady Mavs dropped their Sun Belt Tournament semifinal contest, 57-50, to #7-seeded South Alabama (24-9) inside Lakefront Arena.
 
Facing a 43-33 deficit early in the final quarter, UTA went on a 13-3 run over the ensuing six minutes to tie the contest at 46-46 on a Terryn Milton layup with 2:39 remaining. However, USA had a response by scoring the seven of the next eight points to build a 53-47 advantage, and the Lady Mavs were unable to get any closer than three the rest of the way.
 
Brooke Alexander led UTA with 12 points on 4-8 from 3-point range, while Sun Belt Co-Player of the Year Cierra Johnson closed in on a double-double with eight points and eight rebounds in 39 minutes.
 
With the loss, UTA will await its postseason fate. By virtue of sharing the regular-season championship with Little Rock, if the Trojans defeat South Alabama in the final on Saturday, UTA will receive an automatic bid to the WNIT. However, if Little Rock loses, the Trojans will get the auto-bid by virtue of their two head-to-head wins over UTA during the regular season, leaving the Lady Mavs as at-large WNIT candidates.
 
WNIT and other postseason selections will be made following the NCAA Tournament Selection Show this coming Monday evening, Mar. 18. For additional information, log on to UTAMavs.com.

For the latest news on UTA Women's Basketball, log on to UTAMavs.com or stay connected to the Lady Mavs on social media. Follow the Lady Mavericks on Twitter @LadyMavHoops, on Instagram @UTALadyMavs and on Facebook at Facebook.com/LadyMavHoops.

POSTGAME NOTES

• UTA suffered only its third loss on the season when scoring between 6-10 three-pointers, having made six today and dropping the season record in such games to 14-3 overall.
• Redshirt junior guard Brooke Alexander led the team in points scored for the third time this season going 4-9 from the field for 12 points.
• Redshirt senior guard Cierra Johnson added to her UTA career record 308 steals with four in the game today, for a new total of 312, which is third all-time in the SBC. 
• Freshman guard Katie Ferrell leads the conference in assist to turnover ratio and improved upon that mark today with six assists to only one turnover.
• Today tied for the second most three-pointers attempted by UTA on the season with 20 three-point shots taken.

POSTGAME QUOTES
Head Coach Krista Gerlich
Opening Statement:
"Obviously, congratulations to South Alabama; and what a feat for them to be playing as many games as they are in a row, and to play with that much heart and determination.  They are really playing well.  Coach Fowler has done a great job with them.  I hate it for our kids because I don't feel like they really came out and attacked the way we wanted to.  I'm sure we had first-game jitters, but at the same time, that is no excuse because our kids have got to learn to take advantage of the opportunity to have three byes.  You go straight to the semis for a reason, and we've got to come out and throw the first punch and be able to play through some adversity early and not get ourselves in a hole.  We had a lot of young kids on the floor, but we've had a lot of young kids on the floor all year long and they've done a really good job.  Cierra and the other seniors have done a great job of leading them.  I think our lack of toughness really showed through today, in that we just didn't make plays when we needed to make them early.  Late, we absolutely gave it a chance, but we still didn't have anyone to step up and make tough plays when we needed them."
 
Talk about having a hard time getting into your offense in the first half:
"We talked all week about being super-aggressive, and how at tournament time you have to be the aggressors.  We talked about moving and cutting and attacking.  For whatever reason, we still didn't ."
 
Do you think the triple-bye hurt you?
"No.  I actually really like the setup.  I think it's good for the conference, and until we can get our conference in a position to get more than one team in the tournament, then we need to try and get our best team in the tournament.  If we can't handle a couple of byes and using our rest to our advantage, then we don't deserve to be in the tournament. "
 
Cierra Johnson, Sr., G
Did USA's streak affect the team's mentality?
"We really weren't thinking about the streak. We knew they had to be tough to play that many games before playing us."
 
Only being down by four, what was your thought process coming into the second half?
"I was thinking that we were going to come out harder and win the game."
 
Brooke Alexander, Jr., G
How were you guys able to capitalize from South Alabama's lack of offensive spark?
"I don't know if it was South Alabama's lack or the fire that Cierra started. I think it was our spark, not their lack of spark."