Tulsa Women Take Down UTEP

The Tulsa women's basketball team recorded a 73-62 win over UTSA in the Conference USA opener on Wednesday night at the Convocation Center in San Antonio, Texas. TU moved to 7-5 on the season and 1-0 in C-USA, while the Roadrunners fell to 9-5 overall and 0-1 in the league.

"I am really pleased with way we rebounded in second half," Head Coach Matilda Mossman said. "We gave up too many offensive rebounds in first half, so the way we came back and battled, even though we got outrebounded, we got more box outs and more offensive rebounds in the second half."

Mariah Turner scored a team-leading 16 points, while Kelsee Grovey added 15 and Ashley Clark totaled 14. Kadan Brady tallied eight points, while Loren McDaniel and Erika Lane each had seven. Clark had a team-best nine rebounds and four assists, while Lane also had four assists.

UTSA jumped out to a 7-2 lead with 16:55 on the clock, but TU went on an 18-2 run that spanned nearly five minutes on the clock to claim a 20-9 advantage at the 11:02 mark. The Roadrunners inched back into it and tied the game at 34-all with 23 seconds on the clock, which was the halftime score.

"We had four starters out in the last six minutes of the first half, but we still played them even," Mossman said. "Even though we had players out and we had a lot of turnovers, we still did the things we needed to do to win."

TU shot a solid 48-percent (12-of-25) in the first frame, including 42-percent from behind the arc, and were 7-of-11 for 63-percent from the free throw line. UTSA shot just 38-percent from the field, went 0-of-7 from three-point range, and hit 6-of-10 (60-percent) from the charity stripe in the first half.

The Golden Hurricane started the second half with a 12-1 run for an 11-point advantage with 14:47 on the clock, and continued to inch ahead to a game-high 15-point lead with 5:17 left to play.

UTSA had a 40-37 lead in rebounds, a 10-3 advantage in steals and a 6-0 lead in blocks, while registering 16 turnovers to TU's 18. Tulsa had a 16-9 lead in assists.

The Golden Hurricane shot 50-percent from the field, including 40-percent from three-point range, while UTSA was 34-percent from the field and just 8-percent from behind the arc. Both teams shot 61-percent from the charity stripe, but TU was 21-of-34, while the Roadrunners were 13-of-21.

UTSA was led by Kamra King with 15 points and Mannasha Bell with 11, while Niaga Mitchell-Cole recorded 10 rebounds and three blocks.