LAWRENCE, Kansas – The UT Arlington women's basketball team nearly erased a 16-point halftime deficit at Kanas Wednesday night, but the Lady Mavs (2-1) came up just short as the Jayhawks claimed a 79-74 win inside Allen Fieldhouse.
Trailing 38-22 early in the 3rd quarter, UTA mounted a furious comeback, and after a
Starr Jacobs fastbreak layup with 3:30 left in the 4th quarter pulled within one, 66-65, looking to pick up a marquee road win over a KU side that won a game in the NCAA Tournament last season.
However, that would be as close as the Lady Mavs would get as Kansas responded with a 5-0 run all from Myvette Mayberry to open up a six-point edge, 71-65, with two minutes to play, and UTA could get no closer than three the rest of the way.
Graduate student
Jireh Washington led the way for the Lady Mavs offensively with a team-best 18 points – 16 of which came in the 2nd half as the Arkansas State transfer delivered several and-1 finishes to help key the UTA comeback effort.
She was one of three double-figure scorers for the Lady Mavs as Jacobs – who played most of the night with foul trouble – netted 15, and
Kayla White added 13 as those three accounted for 62 percent of UTA's scoring output.
Shyia Smith and
De'Sha Benjamin almost made it a quintet of double-digit performers for the Lady Mavs as they both tallied nine.
BOX SCORE NOTES
- Jacobs also added six rebounds, a team-high-tying three steals and two assists.
- Washington passed out a game-best five assists.
- Benjamin led the Lady Mavs on the glass by corralling seven to pace UTA to a 40-35 rebounding edge, including a 15-6 advantage on the offensive end leading to 14 extra field goal attempts.
- White and Washington both matched Jacobs' steal total as the Lady Mavs finished with 12 thefts.
- Those dozen steals were part of 23 KU turnovers that UTA forced the Jayhawks into, leading to 21 points.
- UTA finished the night at 44 percent from the floor (30-69), but KU connected at a 51-percent clip (28-55).
- The Lady Mavs outscored the Jayhawks in the paint, 50-46.
- After scoring just 22 points in the 1st half, UTA out-performed that total in both the 3rd (25 points) and 4th (27 points) quarters.
GAME FLOW
The Lady Mavs started the night slowly on the offensive end, scoring just six points in the opening 7:40. However, UTA ended the 1st quarter with a surge – keyed by consecutive White baseline jumpers from nearly the same exact spot and accentuated by a
Nya Threatt steal and layup off her own missed free throw – to post a 9-2 run over the final 2:20. That pulled the Lady Mavs within two, 17-15, to cap the opening stanza.
Unfortunately for UTA, a similar beginning to the 2nd quarter negated the late push from the 1st quarter as KU scored 12 of the first 16 points to create the game's first double-figure advantage for either team at 29-19 with 3:30 to play in the half, and extended to 38-22 at halftime.
Coming out of the locker room, UTA responded brilliantly, scoring the first eight points of the 3rd quarter and eventually shaving nine points off their deficit following a wide open 3-pointer from Smith at the top of the arc to make it a 40-33 game just four minutes into the frame. After the hosts went back in front by as much as 13, they led by 12, 49-37, with less than two minutes remaining in the quarter.
That's when the Lady Mavs – and in particular Washington – took over as she converted consecutive traditional three-point plays, and then White backed it up with a pair of layups and all of sudden in 90 seconds UTA was down two, 49-47.
KU scored the last basket of the 3rd quarter and first two points of the 4th quarter to go back in front by six, 53-47. From there, the Jayhawk advantage wavered between two and five points as both teams traded buckets until the aforementioned late KU push to squeak out a win.
NEXT UP
UTA will face a stern test – and its second-straight Big 12 member – when the Lady Mavs take on #16 Oklahoma as part of the Maggie Dixon Classic at TCU's Schollmaier Arena on Sunday at 3:30 p.m.
Gallery: (11-16-2022) Women's Basketball @ Kansas
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