| Senior Monica Gibbs just missed establishing the national single-season record for triple-doubles on Saturday. |
BEAUMONT ? Senior guard Monica Gibbs recorded game-highs of 20 points and 10 assists and senior forward Onika Anderson posted her team leading 12th double-double of the season with 17 points and 11 rebounds to lead UTSA past Lamar, 77-45, on Saturday night.
Gibbs, who also hauled in nine rebounds, just missed out on collecting her fourth triple-double year, which would have been a new national single-season record. Senior forward Ryba Pawlaczyk added 12 points to along with eight boards.
The Roadrunners won their fourth game in a row to improve to 19-8 overall and they kept pace with UT Arlington for the race for the top seed for the Southland Conference Tournament at 12-2.
“We played excellent ball tonight,” head coach Rae Rippetoe-Blair said following the 32-point triumph. “We were able to knock down our outside shots and took Lamar out of its zone defense, which made it easy for us to get into the flow of our offense.”
UTSA handed the Lady Cardinals (18-9, 10-4 SLC) their first home loss of the season, snapping a 14-game winning streak at the Montagne Center.
Nikki Williams was the lone Lamar player to reach double-figures with 11 points, while Trashanna Smith grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds.
UTSA, which led by 20 (44-24) at the half, came out of the locker room on fire, scoring 10 of the first 14 points to extend the advantage to 26 with 15:50 showing on the clock. Reke Agnija's three-ball capped off an 8-2 run by Lamar, which cut the deficit to 22, 58-36, with 12:14 remaining, but it would be the closest the Lady Cardinals would get for the rest of the game.
Freshman Shantel Nwanguma drained the first 3-pointer of her career to give UTSA its largest lead of the game at 34 (77-43) with 1:13 left.
UTSA connected on 10 of its first 13 field goals to start the contest and the Roadrunners jumped out to a 25-8 lead with 10:57 to go in the first half. A 3-pointer by Williams ended a Lamar six-minute scoreless drought, but an 11-6 stretch by UTSA pushed the edge to 24 with 3:41 left.
UTSA will play its regular season home finale at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 4, against I-35 rival Texas State. Prior to the contest, this year's senior class will be honored for its contributions to the program.