SEATTLE, WASH. --- The UT Arlington women's basketball team (11-14, 5-8 WAC) displayed dominance in the second half on the way to a 75-49 win over Seattle (4-18, 4-8 WAC) on Saturday inside the Redhawk Center.
It was the team's second-largest victory of the season behind a season-opening 49-point win over Texas Southern. The Lady Mavs were buoyed by the return of
Jireh Washington, who missed the past four games due to an injury, and the graduate senior produced 13 points, four rebounds and three assists.
Kayla White was the offensive star for the Lady Mavs, though, as she continued a torrid stretch, pouring in a game-high 23 points on 9-of-17 shooting, including a career-best 5-of-8 finish from long distance. The graduate senior averaged 21.5 points while shooting 8-of-15 (.533) from long distance over a pair of games this week.
On top of that, White moved into a tie with Southern Utah's Cherita Daugherty for the conference lead in 20-point performances with five, and she has tallied double-digits in 17 of the past 19 games.
Seattle led twice in the game - on the game's opening basket and 6-4 with 6:44 left in the first. From there, though, White hit back-to-back jumpers to spur a 13-0 run that lifted the Lady Mavs to a 22-9 lead through one. Washington closed the quarter with a driving layup down the left side following a pokeaway steal from
Nya Threatt, who had four steals.
Early in the second quarter,
Starr Jacobs finished a bucket down low to give UTA a 15-point lead. The Redhawks trimmed their deficit to as few as six with 48 seconds left in the half, but White buried a 3-pointer 20 seconds later to give UTA a 38-29 lead at the break.
Taleyah Jones opened the second half with six of the team's first nine points as the Lady Mavs used an 11-2 run to break the game open. Moments later, with the lead at 15, UT Arlington went on a 9-0 run - capped by a layup from
Kamaria Gipson - to stretch the advantage to 60-36.
UTA led by as many as 28 with three minutes left in the game on a basket by Jacobs, who finished with 17 points, 11 rebounds, five steals and three assists for her 12th career double-double. It was also her WAC-best sixth double-double of conference play, and she moved within just five points of reaching 1,000 for her career.
Jones finished with 15 points as she joined White, Jacobs and Washington to combine for 68 of the team's 75 points.
Other contributors included: Gipson (four rebounds and two blocks),
Bella Ringenberg (season-high four rebounds) and
Nicole Sanfilippo (two points).
Notes
The Lady Mavs improved to 1-2 all-time against Seattle in a series that dates back to UTA's first tenure in the WAC in the 2012-13 season.
Jacobs, who has played in just 53 career games, is looking to become the fastest Lady Mavs to reach 1,000 points as no one previously has scored that many in just two seasons of play. In fact, she is currently tied with Dani Galbreath (1991-92, 1993-94) for the most points over a two-year career, and Galbreath produced her total in 56 games.
Seattle had entered the game having won three of their past four.
UTA is now 6-2 in games when leading at the half.
With her 23-point outburst, White eclipsed 1,400 career points and now has 1,404. With her five 3-point field goals, she has now compiled exactly 100 all-time. It was her 16th career 20-plus point effort, as well.
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