ABILENE, Texas --- Starr Jacobs produced 28 points and 13 rebounds, but it wasn't enough as the UT Arlington women's basketball team (7-9, 1-3 WAC) was defeated 92-72 by Abilene Christian (8-7, 2-2 WAC) inside the Moody Coliseum on Saturday.
 
Jacobs finished just one point shy of matching her season high and one rebound short of equaling her career high. It was her fourth double-double of the season and the eighth of her career. The senior forward tallied her 19th career game with 20-plus points, including her third of the season, and she has reached double figures in 14 of 16 games this year.
 
Three others also reached double-figure scoring, including Kayla White (13), Jireh Washington (11) and Taleyah Jones (11). Washington's performance, which included five rebounds, was the third straight and 70th double-digit effort of her career. White notched her 64th such performance, including the 10th over her past 11 games, while Jones produced the sixth such game of her rookie season.
 
Early on, Abilene Christian couldn't do much wrong offensively, jumping out to 8-0 and 13-2 leads over the first 2:42. A third-chance layup by Shyia Smith, however, pulled UT Arlington within one in the final minute of the quarter. The Wildcats responded with a 4-0 run over the final eight seconds, which included a long 3-pointer from just inside the half-court line at the buzzer by Aspen Thornton, who finished with 25 points.
 
A three-point play from White pulled UT Arlington back within one with 8:27 left in the half, but Thornton scored the game's next eight points to give her team a 33-24 advantage. The Lady Mavs were able to pull within as close as seven moments later, but ACU's Madi Miller, who finished with a game-high 29 points, buried her team's second buzzer-beating 3-pointer of the game to give the Wildcats a 49-36 lead at the break.
   
The lead was pushed to 19 behind a 10-4 run over the first 2:01 of the second half, and ACU led by as many as 25 on a pair of free throws from Raychael Harjo with 1:45 left in the quarter.
 
The Lady Mavs continued to fight by closing the quarter on a 7-0 run, punctuated by a mid-range jumper from Alexsyah Goudeau with four seconds left. However, an 11-4 run by ACU pushed the margin back up to 25 with just under six minutes left. From there, UT Arlington wasn't able to get closer than 20.

Despite the loss, Smith contributed six points and six rebounds to reach 300 boards in her NCAA career. The only Lady Mav to start every game this year, she also made her 30th-consecutive start dating back to Jan. 20, 2022 against Texas State.
 
Goudeau (2) and Nya Threatt (1) rounded out the scoring for the Lady Mavs, who had six assists on 26 field goals. Defensively, Jones had a season-best four steals, which was half of the team's total for the game.
 
Outside of the duo of Miller and Thornton, who combined for 54 points, ACU also received 11 points from Harjo. They finished 14-of-35 from long distance as a team, including nine in the first half alone. It was the most 3-pointers UTA has allowed in at least eight years.
 
Saturday's matchup was the first meeting between the two programs since Nov. 27, 2013 and just the second since 1987. Abilene Christian is coached by former Lady Mav, Julie (Roewe) Goodenough, who played in Arlington from 1989-91. UTA still holds an 8-7 advantage in the all-time series, which dates back to 1973.

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