ARLINGTON, Texas – The University of South Alabama's women's basketball team (9-18, 4-12) fell 53-41 to Texas-Arlington (19-7, 11-4) on Saturday afternoon at College Park Center.  The Mavericks led for almost the entire game and pulled away from the Jaguars in the third quarter with a 15-2 run that lasted for over six minutes.
 
"We had difficultly all game getting the ball inside," said South Alabama head coach Terry Fowler.  "Rebekah VanDijk was pretty tough against us, especially with Chyna Ellis trying to use her back to the basket offense.  We really like to try to play through our post players and go from there, but it just wasn't able to work for us today."
 
The Jags were held to single-digits in two quarters, including the third as the Mavs outscored them 17-6. South Alabama was just 1-11 from the field and made all four three throw attempts in the quarter, and all six points were scored by Colby Davis.  After Davis made a layup a minute and 19 seconds into the second half, the Mavs began their long run.  Texas-Arlington led by double-digits for the last 15 minutes of the game.
 
South Alabama held Texas-Arlington to just five points in the fourth quarter, but it wasn't enough for a comeback attempt as the Jags scored only 10 points in the quarter.  South Alabama didn't score a point four minutes into the quarter until Erin Autio made a layup and added a three-pointer two minutes later.
 
"I thought on defense we did a good job of squeezing down and preventing the ball from going inside to VanDijk," said Fowler.  "They did make some big three's, including a few times with the shot clock expiring, but overall I was pleased with our defensive effort."
 
Texas-Arlington jumped out to an early lead to start the game.  After Chyna Ellis hit a three-pointer from the top of the key that tied the game up at 4-4, the Mavs went on a 16-3 run.  Just like the first quarter the Jags only had one made field goal (in 13 attempts) and went 4-8 at the free throw line.
 
In the second quarter the Jags were able to cut their deficit down to six points at halftime.  South Alabama got Texas-Arlington into foul trouble with eight personal fouls and went 5-6 at the line.
 
After the two teams exchanged baskets and trips to the charity stripe in the first five minutes of the game, the Jags went on a 7-0 run with points in three-straight possessions.  Candice Williams started the run with a pair of free throws, Davis made a layup and Genesis Perrymond capped off the run with a three off a dish by Davis.  Kennedi Centers drew three charges to help limit the Mavs on offense.  Centers would then split a pair of free throws, and LaNeetra Guillory made a jumper just outside the free throw line for the final basket of the first half.
 
The Jags held the Mavs to 35.6% (16-45) shooting from the field and 23.8% (5-21) from the three, but Texas-Arlington was near-perfect from the charity stripe with just one miss in 17 attempts (94.1%).  South Alabama was 23.5% (12-51) from the field, 18.8% (3-16) from three and 66.7% (14-21) from the line.
 
South Alabama finished with a slight edge on the glass (38-34) that included a 15-6 advantage in offensive rebounds, but it only led to six second chance points.  Texas-Arlington won the turnover battle (21-17), which led to 12 steals and an edge in fast break points (6-0) and points off turnovers (19-9) for the Mavs.
 
Davis scored a game-high 16 points, was perfect from the free throw line (8-8) and also had five rebounds and an assist.  Autio scored eight points off the bench by going 3-4 from the field and had three rebounds.  Ellis recorded seven points, seven rebounds and a block, assist and steal.
 
South Alabama returns home for the final two games of the regular season and will take on Little Rock next Thursday at 5:00 p.m.
 
The 2017 Sun Belt Conference Men's and Women's Basketball Championships are scheduled for a week of March Madness in the Big Easy.  New Orleans will once again be home to the two championships that will take place at Lakefront Arena from March 7-12 and ticket books can now be purchased from your our ticket office.  For more information, visit the Sun Belt Conference's championship central websites - Men's Championship – Women's Championship – and be sure to follow the @FunBelt on social media - @SunBelt.
 
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).