| SLC Player of the Year Monica Gibbs led UTSA into the semifinals for the fourth year in a row on Wednesday. |
KATY ? Southland Conference Player of the Year Monica Gibbs collected the 39th double-double of her career with a game highs of 21 points and 10 rebounds and she led No. 2 seed UTSA past seventh-seeded McNeese State, 71-52, in the second quarterfinal of Wednesday's opening day of the State Farm SLC Tournament at the Merrell Center.
The Roadrunners (22-8) advanced to the semifinals for the fourth season in a row (sixth time during head coach Rae Rippetoe-Blair’s nine-year career) and they will face No. 6 Northwestern State, who upset third-seed Southeastern Louisiana in the day's first contest, 51-45.
"It was a tough game," Rippetoe-Blair said after the victory. "We won by almost 20 points, but it didn’t feellike it. I think the girls probably felt the same way. I think wereally played hard and we finally handled their press. Monicaand Ryba have done a tremendous job of leading us, as well as our othersenior starter, Onika Anderson. I just can’t say enough about them.They arejust determined to get the big rebound or basket or thevery unselfish play with the assist. This was a great win for us.”
Senior forward Ryba Pawlaczyk and sophomore guard Amber Gregg chipped in with 14 and 13 points, respectively, and Pawlaczyk also hauled in nine rebounds.
McNeese State (14-16) was led by Kendra Wells’ 18 points and game-high 13 rebounds. Shante Perry, who came in averaging a team-best 16.0 points per game, was held to just a half dozen on 2-for-9 shooting from the field, including 0-for-5 from downtown.
UTSA used a 17-10 run to up its advantage to 49-35 within the first nine minutes of the second half. Kiara Johnson’s layup cut the deficit to 10 a minute later, but it would be the closest the Cowgirls would get of the rest of the way. The Roadrunners pulled away for good with a 21-12 stretch over the final eight minutes.
UTSA scored eight of the contest's first nine points, but McNeese State used a 6-0 run over the next three minutes of the frame to pull within one at 8-7. The Cowgirls got no closer than that the rest of the half and the Birds closed out the frame with an 8-2 stretch for a 33-25 halftime lead.
Tip off for Friday's semifinal game against the Lady Demons is slated for noon and it can be seen live on the SLC TV Network (in San Antonio on Time Warner Cable's channel 50) and espn360.com (free of charge). A victory will tie the program's single-season record for wins, which was set a year ago.