PUEBLO, COLORADO – #20 UT Tyler women's basketball cruised to an opening win at the South Central Region Challenge on Friday afternoon as head coach
Rebecca Alvidrez earned win number 100 at UT Tyler in the 61-46 win over CSU Pueblo.
Alvidrez becomes the first coach in program history to win 100 games with the Patriots, taking just 133 games to do so since taking over the program prior to the 2021-2022 season.
Three Patriots hit double figures as the team shot 40% from the field and 37.5% from beyond the arc while putting the clamps down on CSU Pueblo as the Thunderwolves shot 34.6% from the field and only 22.2% from deep.
A sluggish start for UT Tyler in the first quarter saw them shoot just 27.8% in the first frame, but a 4-for-4 stretch from the free throw line thanks to
Leila Davis gave them a 15-12 lead after the first ten minutes.
The second quarter saw the Patriots get to 38.5% shooting as six different players entered the scoring column and the Patriots pushed their lead out to 30-23 through the first half. The Patriots held the Thunderwolves to just 17% from beyond the arc and outrebounded them 24-16 in the stretch.
The third quarter was the Patriots best of the day as they shot a blistering 66.7% from the floor and 80% from deep as they began to run away with the contest.
Hayley Cumming caught fire, going 3-for-3 in that frame alone while dropping in a pair of triples. The big stretch came from a 14-3 run over the first four minutes of the second half, extending the lead to 16.
A 5-0 run to begin the fourth cut the lead to 12 with 8:24 remaining, but back-to-back triples from
Polina Latysheva and
Leila Davis and then another jumper from Latysheva ran the lead out to 19 with 5:24 left in the game, giving the Patriots plenty of room to work with as they closed out the 15 point win.
Leila Davis led all scorers with 15 points on 5-for-11 shooting while going 4-for-4 from the free throw line and adding seven rebounds. Both Latysheva and Cumming scored 13, combining for five three pointers, six assists, and seven rebounds.
Mileina Sablinskaite led the Patriots with 10 rebounds and five assists while adding in four points and a block.
#20 UT Tyler will be back in action on Sunday as they wrap up the South Central Region Challenge with a 12 p.m. CT tip off in Pueblo, Colorado as they take on Colorado Christian.
