Test Time

 It was a successful last week for the UT Arlington women's basketball team as they avenged their lone conference loss and put a little separation in the Western Athletic Conference standings between themselves and third place. That sets the stage for the toughest week of the conference season as two road trips to good teams await.

When the Mavericks previously played Utah Valley in Orem, Utah on January 16, UTA got an early lead in the first quarter before losing it, then in the second, the deficit climbed to double digits. The Mavs were unable to climb out of that hole as they basically played even from that point.

In Arlington last week, the formula was the same in the first half, but in the third quarter, UTA used several mini runs to stay within striking distance, which culminated in their first lead since the beginning of the game with less than a minute to go until the fourth. UVU answered and the fourth started with a tie game.

Halfway through, the Wolverines had built a seven-point lead and given how tight these teams have played this year, the odds were against the Mavericks. But in something that has been missing from many games this year, UTA brought the three-point game as senior guard Taliyah Clark hit two and freshman guard Aubrey Reid grabbed an offensive rebound to score a tying bucket to knot it up just a minute and a half later.

Clark would hit another three and the combo of graduate forward Avery Brittingham and graduate forward Koi Love teamed together for some solid assists/buckets to keep their pace going. After building a five-point lead twice, the defense stopped UVU a couple of times and did enough for an 85-83 win.

Seattle came to College Park Center on Saturday and I think the Mavs were looking at the standings a little too much as Seattle is winless in the WAC. UTA never trailed but had a hard time building a substantial lead in the first half. Head Coach Shereka Wright indicated she lit into the team at halftime and it showed in the second half. UTA got a lead has high as sixteen a handful of times in the third quarter and went into the 20's in the fourth as the Mavs ended with an 80-54 final.

Seeing Clark breakout gives the Mavs a fighting chance this week. She led all scorers with 24 against UVU, including five of nine from range. She was a point behind Love against Seattle for the lead with 18 points, 

Senior guard Aspen Thornton was second against UVU with 13 points scored. Guard play has been inconsistent and, in some cases, non-existent. The fact that the Wolverines minimized Love and Brittingham (a combined 20 points and nine rebounds) and UTA still won a close game against a team in the top third in the standing is a great turn of events for the Mavericks.

Brittingham scored only eight and four respectively, and I was only able to see the highlights, so I'm not sure if she was off or if the game plan was to stop her. There's no doubt she's a big part of UTA's fortunes either way but seeing a UTA win with her below her averages was a great sign. 

The fourth-place team in the WAC, California Baptist hosts UTA on Thursday and regardless of the outcome there, it will be a battle between first and second on Saturday in Pheonix, Arizona as undefeated Grand Canyon hosts the current-one-loss Mavericks.

Despite a 5-4 record, I still contend that CBU is one of the top teams in the WAC. GCU hasn't lost a game since November. The stiffest conference test of the year is this week on the road.

The last post regarding the women's team broke down the stat relation between UTA and GCU. I won't rehash it, but the stat positions are roughly the same. GCU improved rebounding margin into the positive range after last week, but UTA is still far ahead. UTA also improved their margin, for what it is worth. UTA also improved scoring defense to third from fourth.

It should be a dandy week as the Mavs will play some meaningful games this week and it should go a long way into shaping the final conference standings.