| Sophomore Whitney York scored a team-high 18 points on Saturday. |
ARLINGTON — Sophomore Whitney York led four players in double figures with 18 points, but UT Arlington’s Meghan Nelson scored a game-high 22 to lead the Mavericks past the Roadrunners 78-71 on Saturday afternoon at Texas Hall.
UTSA dropped to 13-10 on the year and 7-3 in conference play, while UTA improved to 11-12 overall and 6-4 in league action
York, who recorded her 17th double-digit game of the season, went 7-of-9 from the free throws and tied her career-high with eight rebounds on the day. Junior Ashleigh Franklin chipped in with 14 points, while junior Amber Gregg added a dozen on 5-of-10 shooting for the floor. Freshman Judy Jones contributed with 11 and a team-high nine rebounds.
Shalyn Martin and Tamara Simmons added 19 and 15 points, respectively. Martin also hauled in 14 rebounds.
UT Arlington sprinted to the 47-41 lead after scoring the first six of the eight points to start the second half. UTSA trailed 51-44 with 13:37 remaining in the game and mounted a 12-6 run to get within one of the Mavericks lead at 57-56 at the 9-minute mark. Martin connected on a three-ball and Nelson converted on a layup that increased the lead to six (62-56) three minutes later.
The Birds responded with a Gregg 3-pointer and York’s freebies to cut the deficit in half with 4:00 minutes left on the clock and would be the closest the Roadrunners would get for the rest of the game.
Veronica Mergerson connected on a 3-pointer from the left wing with the shot clock expiring to extend the lead to eight (73-65) with two minutes to play and hold on for the win.
UT Arlington grabbed the early 11-5 lead on Simmons’ 3-poniter with 16:49 to go in the first half. UTSA went a 9-0 run over the next two minutes to make it a 14-7 lead. The Mavericks scored six straight points for the 17-14 advantage at the 12-minute mark of the frame.
Nelson’s jumper tied the game at 21-all with nine minutes left in the stanza, but the Roadrunners then netted eight points in row to built its largest lead of the half at 29-21 with 7:03 left. The Mavericks would then chip away and take a 41-39 margin with the aid of a 20-10 spurt to close the half.
UTSA heads home for a divisional game against conference foe Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the annual Pink Out game at the Convocation Center. The game will be televised by locally Time Warner Cable on channel 50 and is scheduled to tip at 7 p.m.