RICHARDSON, TX (02.19.11) – After a sluggish start, the UT Dallas women's basketball team finished up their regular season with a 19-6 run to pull away from pesky LeTourneau for a 56-41 American Southwest Conference win Saturday afternoon in their final home game of the season.
Senior Tarneisha Scott, playing her final regular season game for the Comets (20-5, 16-4 ASC), led the charge with 13 second-half points on her way to a 21-point afternoon. Scott and fellow senior Tawni Ichimura were recognized after the game as being the first graduating class to play on four straight winning teams.
As late as 7:56 left in the game, the Comets were holding on to a tenuous 37-35 lead before turning on the scoring in the final minutes. Until then, both teams had struggled offensively throughout.
At halftime, UTD had hit just 7-of-21 from the field and committed 18 turnovers. Fortunately for the Comets, LETU (2-23, 1-19) was less effective. The Yellowjackets ended the first half with a 4-of-22 shooting performance (18.2 percent) and had 16 turnovers of their own. Still, UTD led by only 21-17 at the break. LETU finished the game shooting 26.7 percent while UTD shot better than 59 percent after halftime.
It took six minutes into the game before the two teams broke a 4-4 tie early and the Yellowjackets actually pulled out to an 11-4 lead as the Comets went almost 10 minutes between their first and second field goal. Still struggling to find a scoring punch, the Comets finally took the lead again at 19-17 with :46 left in the half, then got a Katy Spence basket just before the buzzer to go to the dressing room ahead, 19-17.
The Comets opened the second half on a 12-4 run to go up 33-23 before LETU narrowed it back down with a 12-4 run of its own to pull within two (37-35) with eight minutes to play. UTD answered with a layup from Spence, then 3-pointers from Ichimura and Lyndsey Smith to stretch the lead back out to 10 (45-35) in the next two minutes and never looked back. The Yellowjackets scored just six points in the game's final stretch.
Smith, who nailed three 3-pointers, was the only other Comet in double figures with 15 points and 7 rebounds. Freshman reserve Kellie Loukanis came off the bench for two big 3-pointers in the first half and had 8 points. LETU's lone double-figure scorer was Cait Collins, who finished with 12.
UTD finished the season as the ASC East Division's No. 2 seed and will play the West Division's No. 3 seed next Friday at the ASC Women's Basketball Championship Tournament, hosted by Howard Payne University in Brownwood. Game time and opponent will be announced later this weekend. UTD has been to the tournament five straight seasons, but is still looking for its first tournament win.
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