RICHARDSON, Texas - A cold shooting night in the UTD Recreation Center led to the #12/13 East Texas Baptist University Tigers falling to the #23 University of Texas Dallas Comets, 73-61, in American Southwest Conference East Division play. ETBU is now 12-2 overall and 6-2 in division play.
ETBU was led by 16 points and six rebounds from
Kim Childress while
Kendrick Clark had 15 points and
Amanda Wilson picked up 10 points.
Sydney Saxton scored five points while she dished out a team-high five assists. UTD also had three players reach double-figures with Raenett Hughes led with 20 points while Victoria Pena added 17 points and Kelley Skinner added 11.
All game long, UTD outshot ETBU 52%-39% from the field, 43.8%-30.4% in three-point range, and 77.8%-53.3% at the line while out-rebounding the Tigers 34-31. ETBU did manage 17 steals to UTD's eight.
The first quarter started with both teams exchanging baskets as Wilson (8:06, 7:33) put ETBU up 4-3 while Clark had a three to give ETBU their first lead at 7-5 (6:35). The Comets responded with four unanswered points only for
Kayla Bise to connect with a three seeing ETBU up 10-9 (5:20). But the rest of the quarter would see UTD connect with their shots as they finished with a 12-0 run to go up 21-10 after one.
Eighteen seconds into the second quarter, the lead grew to 23-10 for UTD. ETBU would rally with an 11-2 run (9:01-6:18) starting and ending with a three from Clark. Singleton (7:29) and Childress (6:38) would contribute to the run as ETBU trailed 25-21. UTD pushed the margin to 31-24 on a 6-3 run (5:26-3:01). But Matlock (2:11) and Childress (1:32) would score four of the quarter's final six points as ETBU trailed 33-28 after the first half.
ETBU faced early trouble in the third quarter as UTD pushed their lead up to 40-33 (8:25) and 45-36 (5:21), but the Tigers clawed their way back into the game as they would have two three's from Clark (9:31, 7:01). Childress brought the game to 47-41 (4:47) following a pair of free throws, which led to another made field goal for her (3:28) plus one layup from Saxton (2:47) to trail 47-45. Each team then swapped buckets before Childress converted her eighth point of the quarter with a three (1:41) only to see UTD go up by four by the end of the quarter at 54-50.
UTD's lead went to six after a layup (9:38) before Wilson (9:30) and Valerie Matlock (8:36) brought the score to 56-54. After another UTD basket (8:07), ETBU would get three points from Childress (7:28, 6:08) to trail by one at 58-57. But from that point on, UTD would finish the quarter with 15-4 run as ETBU couldn't convert any baskets. The final score wound up being 73-61 in UTD's favor.
ETBU will have a non-conference home game at 1:00 PM on Saturday at Ornelas Gym vs. Centenary College.
