FRISCO, Texas - Behind four Roadrunners in double-figures, the tenth-seed UTSA women's basketball team (9-20) rolled past seven-seed Florida Atlantic (13-15) on Wednesday afternoon by a score of 83-71 in the first round of the 2018 C-USA Women's Basketball Championship presented by Baylor Scott & White Sports Performance Center at The Star in Frisco.
UTSA closed out the game with a 19-7 run, including the final eight points, to claim its first post season win since 2014, when the Roadrunners defeated Tulsa, 90-89 in the opening round of the conference tournament. With the win, UTSA advances to take on No.2 WKU in quarterfinal action on Thursday. Tipoff is slated for 1:30 p.m.
The Roadrunners shot 53.3 percent from the field as a team, their strongest effort since hitting 59.0 percent in the season-opener. Senior Crystal Chidomere was UTSA's top shooter, hitting 8-of-16 for a game-high 23 points while also grabbing a game-best 11 rebounds. Sophomore Tija Hawkins added strength to the offense, hitting 7-of-11 and finishing with 14 points and grabbing seven rebounds. Senior Carlie Heineman also scored 14 points, while Marie Benson tallied 13 points.
Florida Atlantic was led in scoring by Danneal Ford with 16 points while Raven Royle added 15 points to go along with seven rebounds.
"This is a really big win for our program," head coach Kristen Holt said. " We haven't won in the first round since I've been here, I think since 2014, so it's a really big win. This latter part of the season I've felt like we've gotten better and improved and that's what you want to be doing at this time of year.
Turning Point
The Roadrunners came out strong and took a 23-17 lead after a quarter, going up 46-31 at the half after UTSA outscored FAU, 23-14, in the second quarter. The third quarter, however, went to FAU, as the Owls sparked for 10-0 run to outscore the Roadrunners, 22-16. FAU battled to the game at 64-64 in the fourth quarter but a Benson layup and a Karrington Donald three-pointer gave UTSA a five-point lead they would not relinquish.
The Roadrunner victory avenged the previous meeting between the schools on January 25, when Florida Atlantic rolled to a 99-65 victory in San Antonio.
