Lady Mavs Roar Back to Edge Cajuns 57-51

The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns women's basketball team roared out to a fourteen point halftime lead, but the shots that fell in the first half drew only iron in the second half as the UT Arlington Lady Mavericks used 62 percent shooting in the second half to beat the Cajuns 57-51.

With the win, UTA is now 12-9, 6-6 in Sun Belt play.  The Cajuns fell to 15-7, 7-6.

The Cajuns hit 43% of their shots in the first half, including 6-11 from three point range to race to a 32-19 halftime lead.  The Cajuns' defense held UTA to just 30% from the field while getting ten fast break points to go with the six triples.

But UTA started the second half on a 17-2 run to take its first lead of the game and the two teams stayed nip and tuck the rest of the way before UTA went up by two possessions in the final two minutes.

6'5" Freshman Rebekah Van Dijk scored 14 points and hauled in 15 rebounds to pace the Lady Mavs, while Toma Zaleckaite hit four straight jumpers from the free throw line during the comeback to add 13 points.  Cierra Johnson scored 13 as well.

Keke Veal led Louisiana with 15 points while Robbie Brown chipped in twelve and Kia Wilridge notched eleven.  But UTA held Wilridge scoreless in the second half and limited leading scorer Jaylyn Gordon to seven points on 3-15 shooting.

After hitting the six triples over the UTA zone in the first half, Louisiana was just 1-14 beyond the arc in the second half.  UTA turned the ball over just ten times against a Louisiana defense that was averaging 21 turnovers per contest.

The Cajuns are on the road Thursday against UL Monroe.