ARLINGTON, Texas – The UT Arlington women's basketball team (10-10, 6-4 WAC) started off sluggish but used a big second quarter to defeat Southern Utah (5-14, 3-7 WAC) by a final score of 85-59 inside the College Park Center on Thursday night.
 
Four Lady Mavs finished in double figures with Taliyah Clark leading the charge with 18 points on 7-of-11 from the floor and 4-for-6 from deep. This is her 13th game with double digits and ties her fourth highest point total of the season. Clark also swiped one pass to finish with a steal in 24 minutes of action.
 
A game removed from registering her 1000th career point, Gia Adams followed it up with an impressive 14 points on 4-of-8 shooting and a perfect 6-for-6 from the charity stripe. Adams dished out a career-high eight assists and had three steals. She grabbed five rebounds, her third game in a row with that mark. 
 
Avery Brittingham finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds, her seventh double-double of the season. All of her rebounds were on the defensive end. Brittingham also passed out six assists while adding one steal and one block. 
 
The Lady Mavs bench outscored the Thunderbirds bench by a mark of 25-5. UTA was led by Kali Haizlip, who finished with a career high 11 points on 4-for-6 from the floor in 10 minutes of play. She also added three rebounds and two assists. Miraya Perkins added five points, Hannah Humphrey chipped in with four points, Masengo Mutanda finished with three points and Alexsyah Goudeau had two points, all off the bench.
 
Adéla Válková had two blocks to add to her league-leading block total, now with 32 on the year. She also added six points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals in 24 minutes of action.
 
Despite winning the opening tip and registering the first points of the game, the Lady Mavs started off slow in the opening stages of the game. UTA would go up by two with 8:26 left to go in the quarter before going on a nearly six-minute scoring drought that saw Southern Utah go on a 10-0 run and go up by as many as eight, their largest lead of the game, before the Lady Mavs stopped the bleeding with 2:14 left in the first. UTA would go on an 8-0 run to tie the game up at 12 points apiece before the Thunderbirds scored with under 20 seconds left to go into the second quarter up by two, 14-12.
 
Southern Utah and UTA traded blows back and forth to start the second quarter. The Lady Mavs would retake the lead with 5:08 left in the half, a lead they would never squander. They went up by as many as 11 in the quarter and went into the locker room up nine, 37-28. The 25 points is tied for the fourth highest point total in a quarter on the season for the Lady Mavs, the fourth time they've dropped 25 in a quarter this year.
 
The Lady Mavs kept their foot on the pedal for the third and fourth quarters, never allowing their lead to reach below double digits. In the fourth quarter, the Lady Mavs put up 27 points, their second highest point total for a quarter this season.
 
The Lady Mavs played stingy defense throughout the night, never allowing the Thunderbirds to score 20 or more points in a quarter as well as scoring 24 points off Southern Utah turnovers.

With the win, the Lady Mavs move to a perfect 3-0 all-time against Southern Utah.


 
NEXT UP
The Lady Mavs continue their conference tilt when they host Utah Tech on Saturday, Feb. 3. Tipoff was originally slated for 2 p.m. but has been pushed back to a 2:30 p.m. start time.
   
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