RICHARDSON, Texas – Senior all-American Tarra Richardson out-shined the UT-Dallas Comets Saturday with her first double-double since Dec. 1 and McMurry defeated the UT-Dallas 60-54 at the UTD Activity Center. Richardson had 24 points and 13 rebounds on 10 of 20 shooting and helped the No. 8 team in the nation move to 11-1 overall and 80 in American Southwest Conference play.
Tawni Ichimara hit a lay up for the Comets with 24 seconds remaining to put UT-Dallas within six points of the lead, but the team could counter no further. Chelsea Edwards had 14 points and Erica Baker and Ichimara each had 10 to lead the Comets in the losing effort. Lauren Hale had eight points, 11 rebounds and six blocks in a solid game.
Richardson posted four blocks and three steals and had six offensive boards as well. She got help from Allison Nelson, who had 16 points and four boards on the day.
Each team had 41 rebounds, McMurry had just 11 turnovers and UT-Dallas had 15. McMurry shot 36.4 percent for the contest while the Comets shot 39 percent. Neither team had much of a statistical advantage, but it was McMurry that came out on top.
Neither team broke the 40-percent mark for shooting in the first half as McMurry held a narrow 29-28 lead. Richardson hit a baseline jumper with 2:36 remaining in the first half to break a 23-all tie, and the senior scored the final eight points of the half for the visitors.
McMurry's offensive output in the first period was hurt when the team's second-leading scorer, Maigen Sawyer, picked up her third foul of the half just six minutes and 22 seconds into the first half.
The second half began with hot shooting on both sides. Nelson had eight points in the first four minutes of the second half for McMurry, Sawyer added a 3-pointer, and Richardson had a bucket as McMurry had 13 points after the first media timeout in the second half. However, UT-Dallas didn't let the lead get out of hand and trailed just 42-38 with 14:43 remaining.
McMurry's largest lead was eight points as the Comets were on the visitors' tail all afternoon. However, UT-Dallas' effort fell short and the team fell to 7-6 overall and 3-5 in league play.
McMurry will play host to Concordia-Texas Thursday at Kimbrell Arena at 5:30 p.m.
