OREM, UTAH --- The Utah Valley women's basketball team (6-17, 3-9 WAC) used a 21-3 run over the game's final six minutes to knock off UT Arlington (10-14, 4-8 WAC) 64-53 inside the UCCU Center on Thursday night.
With the game knotted at 43 apiece early in the fourth,
Taleyah Jones scored five straight and then grabbed a steal before dishing to
Starr Jacobs for a layup to complete a 7-0 run and give the Lady Mavs a 50-43 lead with 6:25 left in regulation.
Following a timeout, however, Utah Valley answered with a 10-0 spurt over the next three minutes, punctuated by a 3-pointer from Mae Afoa with 3:19 left.
Kamaria Gipson, who produced her second double-double of the season in the loss, answered with a layup, but Afoa scored the next four as the Wolverines scored nine more in a row.
Alexsyah Goudeau scored the final point of the game for UT Arlington from the foul line with 13 seconds left.
The Lady Mavs, who dressed eight players including five true freshmen for the game, were led by
Kayla White, who poured in a game-high 20 points. It was her fourth 20-plus point effort in conference play, tying her with Southern Utah's Cherita Daugherty and UTRGV's Iyana Dorsey for the most in the WAC.
Gipson finished second on the team in scoring with 13 points, 10 rebounds and a block. She finished 6-of-10 from the field while Jacobs added 10 points, eight rebounds, four assists and four steals to round out the double-digit scorers.
For Jacobs, her 10-point outing pushes her within 22 of the 1,000 point milestone in her NCAA career. Jones, meanwhile, added seven points, five rebounds and a pair of assists.
In the first half, White scored 15 of UT Arlington's 28 points. The senior sharpshooter scored seven of her points during a 9-0 run over a 2:03 stretch late in the period that catapulted the Lady Mavs to a 28-19 lead at the break. In fact, UT Arlington closed the first 20 minutes on an 11-2 run as Gipson tallied seven points and seven rebounds overall.
Defensively, UTA held Utah Valley to 6-of-22 shooting (.273) from the field in the half, including zero field goals over the final 5:15.
Utah Valley's Shay Fano, who came into the game ranked ninth in the WAC in rebounding, finished with a game-high 13 rebounds. Kylee Mabry tallied a team-high 14 points and six steals for the Wolverines, who also got 13 from Ally Criddle and 10 from Afoa.
The Lady Mavs will be back in action Saturday at Seattle at 5 p.m. CT.
Notes
This was the first all-time meeting between the two teams.
UT Arlington fell to 5-2 this year when leading at the half.
UTA's largest lead in the game was 12, which came with 6:04 left in the third quarter.
The game featured three ties and one lead change. The Lady Mavs led for 33:24.
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