| Head coach Rae Rippetoe-Blair celebrates her team's second consecutive Southland Conference Tournament Championship. |
KATY ? No. 2 seed UTSA punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year after knocking out top seed UT Arlington, 74-63, in the Southland Conference Tournament Championship Game held Saturday afternoon at the Merrell Center.
Sophomore guard Jordan Stark led four Roadrunners in double-figures with a game-high 23 points on the strength of seven 3-pointers. She set a single-game tournament record in three-balls made and attempted (16).
Meanwhile, senior guard Monica Gibbs and senior forward Onika Anderson added 19 and 18 points, respectively. Sophomore guard Amber Gregg added a dozen points and Anderson also hauled in a game-high 14 rebounds for her 15th double-double of the season.
The Runners (24-8) set a school-record for victories in a season with 24, breaking last season’s mark of 23.
UTSA led by five at the break but opened the second half with an 11-4 run behind Gregg’s back-to-back 3-pointers. Stark knocked down two more three balls to push the Roadrunners’ advantage to 49-34 with 13 minutes remaining.
UT Arlington mounted a late charge with the help of a 23-12 run over the next eight minutes, capped by a Simmons 3-pointer from left wing that made it a 61-59 contest with 5:13 to play.
The Roadrunners answered the call and pulled away from the Mavericks, netting nine unanswered points to increase their lead back to double-digits with just over a minute remaining.
“I’ll tell you we love the Merrell Center,” head coach Rae Rippetoe-Blair said. “We’re 6-0 in here and it’s a great place to be. You have to give UT Arlington a lot of credit. They played a great game. At times, we would go up by 10 and then they would make a run.
“They were running a 3-2 zone on us, but Jordan is a great shooter and she had it going today. Monica did a great job driving and getting the ball to our shooters and Onika was an animal on the boards.”
Stark made back-to-back 3-pointers to highlight an early 13-8 start for UTSA. Sophomore guard Amber Gregg drained a trifecta from the top of the key to give the Roadrunners their largest lead of the stanza at 21-13 at the 9-minute mark.
| Senior Onika Anderson was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player. |
Dixon made a pair of free throws to cap a 7-2 run by UT Arlington that cut the Runners’ lead to 23-20 one minute later. Anderson’s three-point play and Stark’s third three ball of the frame gave the Runners a 32-27 at the half.
Anderson was named SLC Tournament Most Valuable Player, while Gibbs and Stark joined her on the all-tourney team.
UTSA will learn its NCAA First Round assignment during the NCAA Selection Show televised by ESPN at 6 p.m. (CT) on Monday, March 16.