NEW ORLEANS – A dominant defensive performance in the first half helped the Texas State women's basketball team to a 52-46 win over rival UT Arlington on Wednesday at Lakefront Arena in New Orleans. With the win, the Bobcats are now 3-0 against the Mavericks this season, holding UTA below 60 points in all three matchups.Â
The game started as a defensive struggle as neither team could find the bottom of the net. Both teams combined to go 0-of-28 before the first field goal of the game was made and UT Arlington started 1-of-18 overall. During that stretch Texas State picked up four steals and had a 7-6 lead with 9:00 in the first half.Â
Texas State's offense got in gear as the team went on a 7-0 run. First, Ayriel Anderson hit a step-back jumper, which was followed by a Kileah Mays steal and an Anderson left corner three to give the Bobcats the lead back.Â
Meghan Braeuer's three with two minutes to go in the first gave the team a 20-14 lead en route to taking a 22-17 lead at halftime. The 17 points allowed in the first were the fewest since allowed 17 to South Alabama on Jan. 15 in San Marcos. UT Arlington shot just 5-of-28 in that first half for 17.9 percent. That was the lowest since Bethune Cookman shot 14.8 percent at the Stetson Tournament in December.Â
Ericka May came out on fire to start the second half. She was able to drive and get an and-1 before hitting a three to give the Bobcats a 10-point lead in the first two minutes of the period. The Mavericks then went on a 4-0 run to close the gap but Texas State responded by having Taeler Deer go on a 4-0 run of her own to extend it back to a 36-26 lead with 12:56 to go.Â
UTA went on a 9-0 run, to make it 36-35. Fortunately for the Bobcats, they responded going on a 6-0 run to push the gap back to 42-35. Anderson then broke the Maverick zone by cutting through and finding Meghan Braeuer in the right corner for a three pushing the lead to 45-37.Â
The Bobcats will now face UALR in the semifinals on Friday at 11:30 a.m. The video broadcast is available on ESPN 3 while the radio broadcast is available on 89.9 FM KTSW and txstatebobcats.com/radio.
