PENSACOLA, Fla. – For the first time as a member of the Sun Belt Conference and the first time since 2009, the UT Arlington women's basketball team will play for a conference title.
The second-seeded Lady Mavs played an incredible all-around game to knock off the third-seeded Ragin' Cajuns of Louisiana and set up a date with regular season champions Troy on Monday afternoon.
Junior
Starr Jacobs had a double-double with 28 points and 10 rebounds to go with three blocks and three assists, while senior
Claire Chastain poured in 15 points, including three 3-pointers. Senior
Terryn Milton added 10 points, five boards, and five assists, while senior
Shyia Smith scored seven.
Seniors De'sha Benjamin and
Camryn Hawkins each scored six, while senior
Katie Ferrell had three points, nine assists, and seven rebounds.
Lanay Wheaton scored 24 for Louisiana, while Destiny Rice added 11 points. Tamera Johnson had 10 points.
After the Cajuns scored the first two points, Chastain got the scoring started for UTA similarly to Friday night's game as she knocked down a 3-pointer. Jacobs followed with a basket as well as a free throw from Smith to lead 6-2.
Louisiana scored the next five points to retake the lead and held an 11-10 lead. UTA scored seven of the next nine points behind feeding Jacobs inside and a 3-pointer from Ferrell to take a 17-13 lead. Jacobs would tack on five more points in the final minutes of the first quarter to help UTA take a 22-17 lead after one.
The Cajuns used 3-point shooting to cut the gap back down to one before Jacobs again scored five straight points, including a 3-point play, to give UTA a 29-25 lead. Louisiana scored five straight to push back ahead 30-29, but Jacobs scored four of the final six points to give UTA a 33-32 lead at the break.
Both teams traded blows throughout the early portions of the third quarter as the Lady Mavs held on to a 39-38 lead. From there, UTA erupted for a 14-4 run as Hawkins got it rolling with a big-time breakaway lay up plus the foul.
Leading 44-40, UTA got back-to-back-to-back 3-pointer to suddenly take a 53-42 lead. Chastain knocked down a triple before Benjamin hit a pair of threes to swing all the momentum in favor of the Lady Mavs.
Louisiana tried to steal some momentum back as Wheaton hit a 3-pointer at the horn to make it a 57-49 game going into the fourth.
However, this afternoon belonged to the Lady Mavs as Chastain knocked down her third 3-pointer early into the fourth to keep all the momentum with the orange and blue.
The game never got closed than nine points as UTA got big shot after big shot to fall from the lines of Chastain, Milton, and Hawkins to hold serve and defeat Louisiana, 75-65.
BOX SCORE NUGGETS
- UTA put together arguably its most complete game, shooting 29 of 58 (.500) from the field and 7 of 14 (.500) from deep). They were also 10 of 13 (.769) from the line.
- The Lady Mavs were a red hot 16 of 29 (.551) in the second half, including five 3-pointers.
- Starr Jacobs scored 20 of her 28 points in the first half, including 11 in the first quarter.
- Jacobs' 28 points came with Defensive Player of the Year and First Team All-SBC selection Ty'Reona Doucet defending her the majority of the game.
- Meanwhile, Claire Chastain scored 10 of her 15 points in the second half, including seven in the fourth quarter to close things out.
- UTA finished with 22 assists in the game, the fifth time this season they have had 20 or more assists as a team in a game.
- The Lady Mavs held a 17-7 advantage in fastbreak points and a 12-4 advantage in bench points.
- UTA held a 37-31 rebounding advantage and have outrebounded eight of their last 10 opponents.
NOTABLES
- The Lady Mavs will appear in their first Sun Belt Conference Championship Game and are 4-7 in SBC Tournament contests.
- UTA is 2-2 all-time in conference championship games with all four contests coming in the Southland Conference.
- With her third assist with 1:27 to play in the third quarter, Terryn Milton eclipsed 400 career assists. She is the second Lady Mav to do so this season (Katie Ferrell) and is now seven away from passing Terra Wallace for third all-time.
- After going a career-low 13 of 85 (.153) from beyond the arc, Claire Chastain has come to life, going 6 of 9 (.667) thus far in the SBC Tournament including back-to-back season-highs with three made 3-pointers.
- Chastain's 60 percent from the field and 75 percent from beyond the arc this afternoon were season-highs.
- Starr Jacobs has now scored 20 or more points in 15 games this season.
- Jacobs became the first player since Crystal Allen in 2017 to play all 40 minutes of a game.
- Ferrell matched a season-high in assists with nine and is 19 assists away from reaching 500 career assists.
QUOTABLES
"I want to give credit to Louisiana, a tough and well-coached team. I am so proud of this team's response. Starr carried the load for us in the first half and then we got contributions in the second half from (Claire) and our bench and that's what you got to do in March. You got to get contributions from everyone." -
Shereka Wright
"It was a great feeling. I noticed I am playing with a lot more confidence and my teammates and coaches are feeding into that. It's just good that I can do that for my team." - Claire Chastain
"Sometimes I worry about the contact instead of finishing. I knew Ty was a shot blocker and I knew she was coming down on me so I focused more on making lay-ups as opposed to getting to the line." -
Starr Jacobs
Gallery: (3-6-2022) WBB Sun Belt Tournament Semifinals
NEXT UP
It's the biggest game of the year as No. 2 UT Arlington will battled top-seeded Troy for the Sun Belt Conference crown. Tip-off is scheduled for Monday at 1 p.m. inside the Pensacola Bay Center. A watch party will take place at Walk-On's in Arlington Highlands.
FOLLOW ALONG
For updates, behind-the-scenes photos, videos and more engaging and personal content, be sure to follow the women's basketball program on Twitter (@UTAMavsWBB), Instagram (@UTAMavsWBB) and Facebook (/UTAMavsWBB).
