by CONWAY, S.C. – The Lady Mavericks struggled shooting the basketball, but picked up a hard-fought, 67-64, Sun Belt Conference win at Coastal Carolina on Thursday night at the HTC Center.
With the win, UTA snaps CCU’s three-game winning streak and improves to 17-5 overall (9-2 SBC), while Coastal Carolina falls to 11-10 on the season and 3-7 in conference play.
The Lady Mavs shot a season-worst 31.3 percent (20-of-64) from the floor, 40 percent (6-of-15) from long distance and knocked down 21-of-28 shots (75 percent) from the charity stripe, while the Chanticleers made 24 of their 56 shots from the field (42.9 percent) and 4-of-12 (33.3 percent) shots from behind the arc.
The Lady Mavericks struggled offensively, but made up for it on the defensive end of the floor. UTA forced Coastal into 20 turnovers and scored 20 points off of those miscues.
Cierra Johnson led the way with 16 points, four boards and a pair of steals. Lauren Billie (Creek/Seminole) added 11 points and four rebounds. Claire Chastain chipped in with nine points, six rebounds and two dimes, while Katie Ferrell filled the stat sheet on the night and finished with four points, nine rebounds, six assists and two blocks.
UTA used an 11-2 run over the final three minutes of the first quarter to take a 24-18 lead after the first 10 minutes of play. Coastal would cut the UTA lead to just one point (26-25) in the second quarter, but the Lady Mavs held the Chants to just one field goal over the final 4:53 of the period to take a 35-30 lead at the intermission.
In the fourth quarter, UTA increased their lead to as many as 10 points early the fourth, marking their largest lead of the night, but the Chanticleers wouldn’t go away. The Chants used a 7-3 run to cut the deficit to just three points with 1:31 remaining. Caitlin Roche’s triple in the final minute brought Coastal within one point, but a pair of UTA free-throw makes from Chastain with just two seconds remaining sealed the win for the Lady Mavs.
