WBB: Slow Start, Strong Finish for Lady Mavs in 2023-24
WBB: Slow Start, Strong Finish for Lady Mavs in 2023-24
From 1-8 start to the WAC semifinals, the UT Arlington Lady Mavs experienced the highs and lows of a wild ride in 2023-24.
UT Arlington women’s basketball coach Shereka Wright certainly was not afraid to challenge her team in 2023-24 in the non-conference portion of the schedule. If we are being honest, Wright assembled what might have been the toughest schedule a mid-major has ever faced, at least in 2023-24.
With a new team including eight portal transfers and 12 new faces in total there were some growing pains during that difficult non-conference stretch.
A lot of growing pains. Losing seven out of eight games to start a season can do that to a team.
“You can have some teams that just can’t stand each other,” Wright said.
“But this group just genuinely loved each other and that was huge for me.”
“It hurts to lose because we’re competitors but we have all kinds of momentum in our corner now.”
The Lady Mavs dropped eight of their first ten games, including a 17-point loss to Southland Conference regular season champ Lamar and a four-point loss to UTSA (an American Conference tournament semifinalist).
When UT Arlington got its second win on December 16 against Sam Houston State, it sparked a seven-game winning streak that included three wins in games decided by 10 points or less. It included a 19-point win over Stephen F. Austin. a nine-point win over Abilene Christian, and a one-point win over New Mexico State.
After that came a stretch where the Lady Mavs lost four of six games, including a pair of two-point losses at UTRGV and at College Park Center to eventual WAC champion CBU. Chloe Web’s bucket with under five seconds left gave the Lancers the win in a thriller.
The regular season concluded with UT Arlington winning five of their final eight regular season games, including completing the season sweep of SFA.
The Lady Mavs were the fifth seed in the WAC tournament, winning games over Southern Utah and Utah Tech before falling to CBU in the WAC semifinals.
“We were still learning to play with each other at the beginning of the year,” Avery Brittingham said. “After we faced that adversity it all clicked and we never looked back.”
Brittingham was an All-Tournament selection after averaging 22.0 points and 11.0 rebounds in the three tournament games.
UT Arlington earned one of eight spots to participate in last year’s WBI before the tournament was cancelled when tournament officials could not fill a field. CBU had won that tournament the year before and the Lady Mavs were looking to make it back-to-back WAC teams as champions.
Brittingham earned second team All-WAC honors while Gia Adams was named the conference’s Newcomer of the Year.
From 1-8 to finishing the season 17-16 overall. A pretty significant tell of growth happening over the course of a five-month season.
With three starters returning in Avery Brittingham, Taliyah Clark and Nya Threatt, along with some key transfers, there is excitment surrounding the Lady Mavs.
If the 2023-24 Lady Mavs season taught us anything, it’s that you can start slow, but finish as strong as anyone in the country.