Brittany Bush hit a jumper two minutes in to give the Broncs the first lead before Kaylee Best (Seattle, Wash.) tied the game at two a minute later. The game tied again at four at 16:28, a pair of Crystal Allen (Fort Worth, Texas) free throws 30 seconds later would give the Redhawks the lead for the remainder of the half.
Best hit a jumper at 13:35 after nearly three scoreless minutes from either team as the Redhawks doubled the Broncs’ tally, 8-4 and Renee Dillard-Brown (Seattle, Wash.) would put the Redhawks up by six, 10-4, at 13:09.
Wilma Afunugo (Plano, Texas) and Taelor Ross (Vancouver, Wash.) combined to give Seattle U their largest lead of the opening 10 minutes, 16-8, just over halfway through the first half. The Redhawks up, 16-10, UTPA would cut the SU lead in half with a three from Troi Swain at 8:27 just before the under-eight media timeout.
UTPA would answer with their most significant rally of the first half with a 7-4 run to tie the game at 20 with four minutes until half capped by a Tonisha Walker three-pointer. Claire Metoyer (Desoto, Texas) answered back with a three as Seattle U would close the first half with a 9-1 run to lead by eight, 29-21, at half.
The Redhawks would jump out to a double digit lead four minutes into the second half, 37-27, and would lead by double digits four more times over the next three minutes.
The Redhawks leading by nine, 48-39, with 10:15 left in the contest, Cherrell Price and Swain would pop off back-to-back three-pointers and Shawnte’ Goff would cut the SU lead to one, 48-47, by 9:21. UTPA’s Hildur Bjorg Kjartansdottir would put the Broncs ahead by one a minute later, a lead they would keep for the remainder of the contest.
The Broncs would lead by as many as 13, 63-50, with 3:17 remaining. Masha Shtikel (Seattle, Wash.) brought a spark off the bench, hitting a pair of three’s to cut the UTPA lead to nine, but it would be as close as the Redhawks would come, falling 70-60.
UTPA capitalized off 26 Redhawk turnovers, scoring 21 points, outrebounding SU, 43-42. Seattle U narrowly led from the field, shooting 21-of-54 (38.9 percent) to UTPA’s 24-for-65 (36.9 percent).
Ross led the Redhawks with 14 points, while Best recorded 11. Dillard-Brown grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. For the Broncs, Goff led with 16 points while Kjartansdottir grabbed a team-high eight boards.
Seattle U will be on the road for the next two weekends, first traveling to Kansas City and Chicago State next weekend. Stay tuned to GoSeattleU.com as well as Facebook (Seattle U Athletics; Seattle University Women’s Basketball), Twitter (@su_athletics; @su_wbb), and Instagram (su_redhawks; su_wbb) for all the latest updates on the team throughout the remainder of the 2014-15 campaign.