PENSACOLA, Fla. – The UWF women's basketball team suffered through a poor shooting night, falling to Delta State, 63-51, at the UWF Field House in the first round of the Gulf South Conference Basketball Championship presented by TicketSmarter on Tuesday.
UWF shot 33 percent overall and was just 2-for-23 from outside.
Senior forward
Jaclyn Jarnot led the team with 20 points and 14 rebounds for her GSC-leading 18th double double. Fellow frontcourt mate
Zoe Piller ended with 12 points and seven boards as she battled first-half foul trouble and was not as effective as most games for the GSC Freshman of the Year.
UWF went 19-8 this season, improving from 9-10 a year ago and 8-20 the season prior. The Argonauts finished fourth in the GSC after being picked to finish eighth in the preseason coaches poll.
"I thought we really started fighting in the second half but the ball from long range didn't fall for us tonight," 10-year UWF head coach
Stephanie Lawrence Yelton said. "When those aren't falling regularly for us we really struggle.
"I thought another factor for us was there were moments where we had momentum and then had a momentum buster. We would give up an offensive rebound or we would foul someone with two seconds on the shot clock or we had a silly turnover that was unforced. Probably seven or eight of those momentum busters and that was really unlike us."
Delta State (14-12) shot 42 percent and made six 3-pointers in the first half as they built a double-digit lead. T'Kyra Hicks made her first four 3-pointers - all in the opening quarter - and led the Lady Statesmen with 22 points on 4-of-10 from outside. DSU outrebounded UWF 37-36.
The Lady Statesmen now advance to the semifinals where they will meet top seeded and third ranked Union on Saturday afternoon at the Pete Hanna Center in Birmingham, Ala.
Hicks made those four 3-pointers to help the Lady Statesmen to a 19-9 advantage after the first quarter. The Argos scored five quick points in the second period and pulled within 26-21 with 3:44 in the half but the Lady Statesmen scored the final seven for a 33-21 lead.
UWF shot just 23 percent in the half and was 2-of-12 from outside.
UWF pulled to within seven twice in the fourth quarter but saw DSU respond with a mini run each time to keep the margin around 10 points.
