Win puts women’s basketball closer to top of Sun Belt pack
ULM rallied from an 11-point deficit in the second half to beat conference foe Texas-Arlington 70-65 Wednesday night at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.
The Warhawks caused a total of 24 Maverick turnovers en route to ULM’s ninth victory of the season. The team showed some new found poise down the stretch as the Warhawks outscored Texas-Arlington 46-38 in the second half.
Senior forward Ashleigh Simmons talked about how important it was for the team to get this win.
“It was good for us to overcome, I guess we were down 11 points at one point, so overcoming that, keeping our momentum, keeping our confidence and finishing.”
Simmons led ULM’s scorers with 16 points, 14 of which came in the second half. Elexar Tugler and Jasmine Shaw also added in 12 points. Sharnice Brooks scored 7 in just 15 minutes off the bench. Texas-Arlington’s Desherra Nwanguma led all scorers with 28.
Coming out of the half, the Mavericks used a 13-5 run to take the 11-point lead. The Warhawks would battle back, however. The team used a 16-4 run to take the lead with about 10 minutes to play for the first time since the first half
The game came down to the final minutes, with the score tied with just over two minutes left to play. After tying the game with a free throw, the Warhawks hit 9 more additional shots from the charity strip. Those scores proved pivotal as the Warhawks outscored the visitors by 5 in the last 2:10.
Head coach Mona Martin was pleased to just get out of the building with the win.
“Overall, I mean, we stuck with our plan, I thought we did a good job on it. I’m just glad we got a win. We needed that one bad.”
The game boosts the Warhawk’s conference record to 5-6 heading into their matchup Saturday with UA-LR at Fant-Ewing Colliseum.
Simmons recognizes that the Warhawks need to be playing their best basketball, with conference play winding down, and a birth in the conference tournament anything but certain.
“It shows much we’ve grown, shows how we can put those losses behind us and come out ready to play,” said Simmons.
