LAREDO, TEXAS – UT Tyler women's basketball moved to 4-4 on the year and 0-1 in LSC play after a 57-53 loss to Texas A&M International on Thursday night.
The Patriots shot 30% as a team from the floor and 31.8% from deep in the contest while the Dustdevils shot 36% from the field and 33.3% from deep to do just enough on the offensive side to take the narrow win.
UT Tyler held a narrow 11-10 lead after one quarter, leaning on an 8-2 run to start the game as
Polina Latysheva drilled a pair of three pointers and
Hayley Cumming added in a layup. Cumming would add one more three pointer at the 4:29 mark of the quarter, but the Patriots offense went cold as their defense stepped up to hold onto the lead.
Mileina Sablinskaite and
Nikolina Vukcevic combined for their own 9-3 run to kick off scoring in the second frame, leading to a 20-13 lead with 4:47 left in the half. Again however, the offense went cold, with the layup from Sablinskaite being the last points of the half for UT Tyler as Texas A&M International rattled off a 10-0 run to close out the half with a three point lead.
After a 5-0 run to begin the second half,
Leila Davis knocked down a three pointer to get the Patriots going, but the Dustdevils continued to have the answers as they knocked down three more three pointers in a three minute stretch to keep their lead in double digits. Over the final 3:03 of the third quarter, UT Tyler went on a 9-4 run through a barrage of free throws for both teams as they cut the lead down to six points heading into the final frame.
That late run in the third put a charge in the offense to begin the fourth, as they went on a 7-0 run to take a one point lead with 5:46 remaining in the contest, their first lead since the 2:24 mark of the second quarter. A 5-0 run from the Dustdevils gave them a four point lead with 3:39 left, but layups from Sablinskaite and
Jorja Hart again tied the game with 2:04 remaining.
Both sides traded layups with a minute to go, but one final layup from the Dustdevils with 46 seconds remaining would put them ahead for good.
Edit Merivirta drilled a three pointer with 11 seconds left to cut the lead to two, but the Dustdevils converted from the line to secure the win.
The Patriots held a 27-17 lead in points off turnovers and a 13-5 lead in second chance points, but the Dustdevils held a seven point lead in bench points and a five point lead in fast break points to help propel them to the win.
Hayley Cumming led the Patriots with 13 points on 4-for-9 shooting while adding a block and a steal.
Nikolina Vukcevic added in 11 points off the bench on 4-for-11 shooting. Polina Laytsheva added five steals and four assists, and
Mileina Sablinskaite added 11 rebounds and four steals to go with nine points.
UT Tyler will get their chance to right the ship on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. as they take on Texas A&M-Kingsville on the road in Kingsville, Texas.
