RICHARDSON, TX (02.14.11) – In a game that could have gone either way, the UTD women's basketball team saved their last rally for the perfect time and pulled away from Mississippi College late for a 75-68 American Southwest Conference victory Monday night.
The win, which improved UTD's overall record to 18-5 and conference mark to 14-4, also assured the Comets of the ASC East Division's No. 2 seed in the upcoming ASC Championship Tournament. The Comets swept the season series from the Lady Choctaws, who fell to 16-7 and 11-1 in conference. UTD now has a three-game edge on third-place MC with just two games remaining.
Until the game's final two minutes, the game could have easily gone either way as UTD and MC traded leads 11 times and had the score tied eight times. As late as 4:48 left in the game, the score was tied at 60-60 after the Lady Choctaws erased a five-point Comet lead (60-55 at 5:53) with five unanswered points. But Lyndsey Smith answered with a jumper on her way to a 29-point night, then Amy Doyle grabbed a steal and got a layup to give UTD a four-point cushion (64-60) with 3:06 remaining.
MC inched back to within a point twice at 64-63 (2:48) and 66-65 (2:02), but Brittany Houston and Kim Lowery each scored answering shots to put the margin back to three. The Comets then finished MC off with a deciding 9-3 run in the final two minutes.
After a sloppy first half that saw a combined 27 turnovers and neither team shoot better than 44 percent, the Comets trailed 25-24. But UTD's leading scorer, senior Tarneisha Scott, had missed most of the first 20 minutes in foul trouble and had just one point in the scorebook before coming to life in the second half to finish with 15 points. Tawni Ichimura, who was held to just one basket before halftime, scored nine of her 11 points in the second period as well.
Smith led UTD with 29 points followed by Scott (15), Ichimura (11) and Houston (11), who also added nine rebounds.
The Comets needed everything they could get in the final 20 minutes as MC came out firing with a 68 percent shooting performance. The Lady Choctaws quickly expanded their halftime lead out to 29-24, but could never get more than five points ahead the rest of the way. UTD answered to tie the score at 32-32 (15:59), then started trading leads again with MC. Between the 12:52 and 9:29 mark, there were five lead changes and four ties before UTD jumped on top for good.
Both teams ended up shooting over 52 percent for the game, but UTD held an advantage with 7-of-13 three-point shooting. UTD narrowly out-rebounded MC, 26-25, and came up with five blocked shots.
The Comets finish out the regular season at home later this week, hosting UT Tyler Thursday night, then LeTourneau on Saturday afternoon. The ASC Championship Tournament begins Friday, Feb. 25, on the home court of the West Division champion.
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