Cougars Too Quick For Mavericks
Houston 78, UT Arlington 74
ARLINGTON, Texas - It's funny how fortune follows a team. The Mavericks experienced the best and the worst of lady luck in one play Tuesday night, the biggest play of the game.
With UT Arlington down 75-73 and only 22 seconds left to play, Houston forward Courtney Taylor had already missed her first free throw and UTA needed one more miss.
The Mavericks got the miss, but not the rebound. Taylor collected her own miss, went back to the line and the Cougars iced the game away. It was a play that really summed up the 78-74 loss at Texas Hall, the Mavs first of the season.
"I thought we boxed out," freshman forward Donna Dike said. "It's just that extra hustle play that we didn't follow through on."
Dike had a career high 18 rebounds, but for the Mavericks, one more would of helped. The ball bounced on the rim a couple of times as the Mavericks mistimed their jumps. Taylor easily swooped in and collected the missed shot.
"A two point game, and we don't block out on a free throw," coach Samantha Morrow said. "It's kind of the way the night was."
And it wasn't the prettiest of nights for the Mavs. UTA shot 41.4 percent from the field and only 54.2 percent from the free throw line. The Maverick offense looked sluggish, especially in the second half.
"We were a little scrambled," Morrow said. "I'm not going to blame that all on them. Maybe we need to run a few more sets for them."
It looked like the Mavericks were ready to run away in the first half however. Getting out on the break and scoring easy transition buckets, the Mavs ran circle around the Cougars to a 22-12 lead.
But foul trouble forced Morrow to switch to her zone defense earlier than expected and the fast break dried up. So did the overall offense as Houston went on a 20-7 run, capped of by junior Cougar guard Brittney Scott's three pointer at the buzzer. Houston's lead was 32-29 at halftime.
"Defensively we had to run our zone a little but more than we wanted to," Morrow said. "Early on we we're outrunning them down the court but they made the adjustment."
A big adjustment the Mavericks couldn't make was the defense on Scott for the rest of the game. After the buzzer beater at the end of the first half, Scott drilled four more threes in the second half to keep UTA at bay as she finished with a game high 27 points.
Senior guard Meghan Nelson was the primary defender on Scott, but Nelson's foul trouble only let her play 22 minutes.
"She's a very good player and it didn't help Meghan got in foul trouble and it didn't help us having to go to a zone," Morrow said. "That's who we really wanted to put on her."
Scott's back to back threes late in the second half gave Houston a 66-61 lead, just when UTA was starting to gain momentum. The Mavs never got that momentum back. Junior guard Tamara Simmons tried her best though, finishing with a team high 19 points.
Simmons had her own personal duel with Scott in the second half. 14 of Simmon's 19 came in the second half as she carried the load while the rest of the Mavericks struggled from the field.
"I just felt like the girl that was guarding me, I could attack her," Simmons said. "I felt like if we needed to get points I needed to be smart on offense and use my speed to take her off the dribble."
It just wasn't the smartest game Morrow said. Luckily it's early, and Morrow knows there is time to fix the mistakes.
"We have to be a lot more disciplined and be smarter basketball players than we were tonight."
Southern 71, Northwestern State 52
BATON ROUGE, La. - Northwestern State played the first five minutes against Southern on Tuesday night as well as head coach Jennifer Graf could ask of the Lady Demons team. Unfortunately, the remaining 35 minutes of the contest did not fall in line as the Lady Demons turned the game over, literally, in a 71-52 loss to the Jaguars.
The loss was the worst defeat suffered by the Lady Demons (1-1) to Southern in the history of the program.
Northwestern led by as many as 12 points at 14-2 at the 14:53 mark of the first half but from then on, things unraveled as Southern (1-0) forced the Lady Demons into 27 turnovers, scoring 31 points off those miscues, and held Northwestern to just 32 percent shooting for the game (17 of 52).
"Nothing changed basketball wise," said head coach Jennifer Graf. "The only thing that changed was the energy. They (Southern) made a run, and when they make their run, they get the energy and we end up panicking off of it.
"We completely broke down in the second half," said Graf. "Defensively, we obviously aren't guarding if you let a team shoot 50 percent. We just have to be a lot tougher mentally and physically."
Brittiany Houston led all scorers with 17 points on 6 of 10 shooting, including 4 for 5 from long range, while Brooke Shepherd added 10 points.
"She's doing a better job with the ball, but I think she had the ball in her hands a little too much, but that's not a bad thing," said Graf.
Northwestern committed 16 turnovers in the first half with the other 11 in the second, and at one point, turned the ball over on six of seven possessions.
"We were second guessing our passes, and if you second guess it, the open player is only going to be open for a second or two, and if you second guess it, you're going to turn it over," said Graf.
Northwestern State opened the game on fire and stormed out to a 14-2 lead just five minutes into the game behind back-to-back 3-pointers from Anna Cate Williams and Brooke Shepherd.
But Southern turned up the defense and forced Northwestern into several turnovers as the Jaguars put together a 20-3 run to go up 22-17 after a jumper by Freda Allen with 9:02 to play in the first half.
A trey by Houston cut the lead to 24-23 at the 6:46 mark and then Sherrion Thomas tied the game at 26-all after a made free throw with 3:23 to play but the Jaguars outscored Northwestern 8-3 the rest of the half to go into the break with a 34-29 lead.
Southern was led in scoring by Carneta Henerson's 12 points as the Jaguars sank 48 percent from the floor including 52 percent in the second half.
Ole Miss 95, Sam Houston State 51
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Bianca Thomas went 9-of-18 from the field, pulled down 10 rebounds and scored 25 points to lead the University of Mississippi to a 95-61 women's basketball victory over Sam Houston State Tuesday afternoon at Johnson Coliseum.
Shantell Black and Katorra Lewis each added 14 points for Ole Miss (2-0). Whitney Smith led Sam Houston State (0-2) with 21 points and eight rebounds.
The contest was played before a crowd of 2,456 fans as Tuesday was Huntsville Elementary School Day at Johnson Coliseum.
The contest was tied twice early, but Ole Miss quickly took control, building a 52-31 halftime lead. The Rebels were up by 42 points late in the second half.
Ole Miss dominated under the boards, out-scoring Sam Houston 42-26 in the paint and out-rebounding Sam Houston 56-30.
Brittany Brooks scored 13 points to give Sam Houston two players in double figures. Ray Alexander and Khamra Echols each added seven points. The Rebel defense forced 20 Sam Houston turnovers and held the Kats to 38.9 percent from the field (21 -of-54).
Louisiana-Monroe 54, Texas State 48
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