Lady Mavs Advance; Texans Pick Up First Tourney Win
Brittingham's 11th double-double of the year paces UT Arlington to a tournament quarterfinal while Tarleton picked up its first-ever WAC Tournament win.
LAS VEGAS — Day one of the Western Athletic Conference women’s basketball championship is in the books.
With it came two teams who picked up their first-ever wins in the tournament.
UT Arlington, in just its second season back in the WAC, got its 2024 trip to Las Vegas started off on the right foot with a blowout win over Southern Utah.
And in the second game of the day, first-year head coach Bill Brock led his Tarleton Texans squad to its first-ever WAC tourney win in its first-ever trip to the WAC Tournament.
Here is how we got to the results on the first day of WAC Vegas.
UT Arlington 67, Southern Utah 53
In its first year back in the WAC in 2023, UT Arlington did not make it out of the first round in an upset loss to Seattle U.
The second time around went a little bit better for the Lady Mavs. It also helps when you play a team depleted from the injury bug. It may be even better when that team is the defending tournament champions.
UT Arlington led from start to finish against a shorthanded Southern Utah, knocking off the defending champs, 67-53, in the first game of the day at Orleans Arena.
With the win UT Arlington advanced to Thursday’s WAC women’s basketball tournament quarterfinal against Utah Tech at noon pacific time.
It was Avery Brittingham leading the way with 21 points and 11 rebounds for her 11th double-double of the year.
Newcomer of the Year Gia Adams wasn’t far behind for the Lady Mavs with 19 points. However, Adams had to be helped off the floor in the fourth quarter and did not return. Her availability for Thursday’s quarterfinal is yet to be determined.
“We’ve done a good job of making sure our players played to their strengths,” Lady Mavs coach Shereka Wright said. “I feel like this has been my best job of coaching because we had to get a new group to learn to play together against an incredibly tough schedule.”
“We are a team that wins by committee and today was a perfect example of that.”
That schedule included dates with Southland Conference regular season champion Lamar, along with road games at Colorado and Texas among notable opponents.
“The hardest thing for us was figuring out how each other liked to play early on,” Brittingham said. “But in hanging out off the floor and that early schedule we figured things out and are here now.”
Southern Utah backed its way into WAC Vegas on the final day of the regular season. Tracy Mason’s squad has dealt with a bundle of season-ending injuries to key players.
However, the T-Birds stayed within striking distance, never letting the Lady Mavs fully get away in the second half, cutting UT Arlington’s 20-point lead to 13 at one point.
Unfortunately, for the T-Birds, 13 was about as close as things got to open up the WAC Tournament.
UT Arlington had an answer every time the T-Birds made a slight run. And ultimately shut the door to end a rather bleak season for the defending champions.
Alexa Lord had 14 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Thunderbirds, who were 2 of 22 from 3-point range.
All-WAC freshman selection Ava Uhrich rounded out a stellar first campaign with 11 points and five rebounds.
“This is one of my favorite teams that I’ve ever coached because they showed up every day, worked hard and had great attitudes through all of the adversity we endured,” Thunderbirds coach Tracy Mason said. “It was just one of those nights where shots didn’t fall for us.”
Tarleton 54, Abilene Christian 41
After allowing a 21-0 Abilene Christian run spanning the end of the first quarter, and into the second quarter, Tarleton State could’ve folded in Wednesday’s opening game of the WAC women’s basketball tournament.
Instead, playing in their first-ever tournament game, the Texans decided to take a little momentum into the halftime locker room before ramping up the defensive effort after the break.
That momentum continued in the second half as Tarleton’s offense shot an efficient 50 percent from the field.
What was even more impressive though was the Texans defense.
Tarleton held an Abilene Christian to just 12 points after the break. Yes, 12. Four field goals. One 3-pointer. And a lockdown defensive effort that impressed even the ACU players.
“Tarleton is sneaky good and they punish you for every little thing you do wrong on either end of the floor,” ACU guard Bella Earle said.
ACU came into Wednesday 82nd in scoring at 70.9 points a game, and a top-20 team in 3-pointers made per game.
It didn’t matter for the Texans. After halftime, ACU couldn’t hit water if it fell out of a boat. The Wildcats were 4-28 from the field after the break, and actually had committed more turnovers (6) than made field goals.
The result was Tarleton’s first Division I postseason win in program history.
“I’ve been saying for awhile to this team that if they can get to the tournament they can do some good things and here we are,” Texans coach Bill Brock said.
“ACU is a very good offensive team and I am so proud of our young ladies for that defensive effort in the second half and the way they responded to that 21-0 run.” Brock added. “Six weeks ago I told the players that we were practicing really well but that effort wasn’t translating for a game. They’ve put it all together recently.”
Jakoriah Long had 20 points and played all 40 minutes in the win for Tarleton while Miannah Little added 13 points and also played every minute.
“We knew that some of that run was our self-inflicted mistakes but at the half we were positive with each other and believed we could do this,” Long said.
It’s Abilene Christian’s third straight opening game loss at the WAC tournament.
“Our players really responded after an early timeout and that’s what this team has done all year,” Wildcats coach Julie Goodenough said. “Tarleton deserves a ton of credit for the way they defended us. This team was still a group of fighters and I’m proud of the season we had.”
Earle had 10 points with seven rebounds while Martin added 10 points with four rebounds.
Lopes Vegas ? Give me a break!