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LAS VEGAS – After barely making their way into the Western Athletic Conference Tournament as the eighth seed, Southern Utah's season came to an end in the first round Wednesday.
Fifth-seeded UT Arlington, who beat Southern Utah twice in the regular season, topped the Thunderbirds 67-53 to advance to the quarterfinals.
The first half might as well have been advertised as Southern Utah versus Avery Brittingham and Gia Adams. The pair had 15 points each, with Brittingham chasing down eight rebounds to lead the Mavericks. Her three steals were nothing to scoff at either, and UT Arlington forced their opponents into six total turnovers.
"I don't think any shot for me is a bad shot," Brittingham said.
"I don't feel like, one-on-one, a lot of players can defend her," Mavericks head coach Shereka Wright agreed. "She's being aggressive and she's patient."
Thunderbird Alexa Lord tied Brittingham's rebound total in the first half on the way to her third double-double of the season and just the fourth of her five-year career. Shiho Isono came off the bench to lead Southern Utah in first-half points with 7.
Southern Utah kept the pace with UT Arlington for the first seven minutes before they felt the game start to slip away.
The Thunderbirds trailed 22-14 at the end of the opening frame after going 1-of-6 from 3-point range and allowed the Mavericks to shoot 53% from the field. Their second quarter was even worse, though. Southern Utah was held to just 9 points, and had a three-minute scoring drought midway through the quarter.
With the Mavericks putting up 17 points on 7-of-16 shooting from the field, the teams entered halftime with UT Arlington controlling a 39-23 lead.
Lord led all scorers in the second half with her 11 points, 9 of which came in the third quarter alone. She collected five more rebounds to complete her 14-point, 13-rebound afternoon in the final game of her career.
"I don't think I could have ended up in a better place with better people," Lord said of Southern Utah. "I'm just so glad I was able to spend five years here."
Nya Threatt came alive in the half for the Mavericks and led her team with 7 points, and worked on drawing contact to go 3-of-4 from the free-throw line. Brittingham slowed down a bit, but still had enough gas to put up 6 points.
Both teams scored 18 points in the third quarter, and it was Southern Utah's best quarter of the game. The Thunderbirds went 7-of-15 from the field, with all five of their starters scoring at least 2 points. UT Arlington made one less field goal, but five Southern Utah fouls allowed them 6 points at the charity stripe.
The final period of play was the lowest-scoring of the afternoon. The Thunderbirds put up 12 points while holding the Mavericks to 10, making it the only quarter they outscored their competition. It took until just 33 seconds left in the game for Southern Utah head coach Tracy Mason to surrender. She put in all of her bench players as the clock wound down on Southern Utah's season.
UT Arlington's biggest strength in the game was arguably their perimeter defense. They ranked 10th in the conference when it came to allowed 3-point shots, but held Southern Utah to 2-of-22 shooting, less than 10%, from beyond the arc.
"I thought we were very disruptive in the passing lanes and I thought we contested a lot of their shots," Wright said. "Our 3-point percentage defense has been very down. We've gotta continue to work on those things, but I thought our kids did a good job of understanding coverage and personnel today."
The Thunderbirds went 8-21 overall in the regular season just one year removed from the program's first ever March Madness appearance. The WAC's preseason coaches poll projected them to finish second in the conference.
"It was important for us to get here," Mason said. "We've obviously battled some adversity this year, but I told them in the locker room this is one of my favorite teams I've ever coached. I'm proud of what they were able to do."
The WAC Tournament will continue until Saturday, where UT Arlington has advanced to take on Utah Tech in the quarterfinal round Thursday.
