TYLER, TX (02.28.14) - The UT Dallas women's basketball team is one step closer to defending its American Southwest Conference championship after holding off Concordia Texas, 79-70, in the quarterfinals of the 2014 ASC Tournament Saturday afternoon at UT Tyler's Patriot Center.

UTD (21-5) will meet the University of Mary Hardin Baylor, an 81-72 winner over the University of the Ozarks, in a semifinal game Saturday at 1 pm. UTD split with UMHB during the regular season, but defeated the Cru, 81-70, last weekend.

Senior Morgan Kilgore paced UTD with 19 points and 10 rebounds, while junior Jo'Anna Davis was again a big force off the bench, scoring a team-high 17 points and nailing down 7-of-9 points at the free throw line. The Comets were actually outscored by the Tornados from the floor, but took advantage of 29-of-40 free throw shooting off 31 CTX fouls to secure the win. Two CTX players fouled out in the whistle-fest.

Amber Brown started the scoring at the charity stripe just :47 into the game and UTD never trailed. After leading 31-25 at halftime, the Comets saw Concordia cut into their lead just once, then never let the Tornados get any closer than five points the rest of the game.

The game was played inside where both teams scored 20 points in the paint. UTD, however, enjoyed a 44-35 rebounding advantage.

The Comets' biggest first-half lead was eight points after an Ashley Shaw layup with :17 left before the break. The Tornados opened the second half with a jumper from leading scorer Tyler Compton (20 points) to reduce the lead to 31-27, but Davis responded with a layup and foul shot to push the lead back to seven (34-27) two minutes later. After CTX had the lead down to five for the fifth time of the second half (46-41 with 10:41 remaining), UTD went on a 14-7 run to stretch the lead to its largest point (60-48) with still 6:37 to play.

Concordia made three late runs in the final two minutes, cutting the lead down to six; but UTD responded each time at the free throw line to ice the win.

UTD shot 47.1 percent in the game from the floor, hitting 24-of-51 shots. Concordia, on the other hand, launched 72 attempts from the field, connecting on just 27 to finish the game at 37.5 percent. Both teams made just two three-point attempts each in the game.