Women's Basketball Take On UTA In SBC Championships Quarters

NEW ORLEANS – It only took three-overtimes, but a first round 88-81 win over the Georgia Southern Eagles punched the sixth seeded Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns women's basketball team's ticket to the Sun Belt Conference Women's Basketball Championships Quarterfinals where they'll play the third seeded UT Arlington Lady Mavericks on Thursday, Mar. 8 starting at 7:30 p.m. at the Lakefront Arena.

HOW TO WATCH/LISTEN/FOLLOW: Louisiana's quarterfinals matchup with the Lady Mavs will be broadcast on ESPN3 with Drew Fellios and Steffi Sorensen handling the call. On the radio Jay Walker will be back on the mike for ESPN1420 as he'll handle the play-by-play duties for the game and live stats will be provided by the Sun Belt Conference.

LAST TIME OUT: Louisiana had to come back from an 11-point deficit that they faced in the second quarter of the game against the Eagles on Tuesday, Mar. 6. But they did so by fighting through a hot shooting first half from the Eagles. Georgia Southern shot 50 percent in the half, to push their lead past double digits, but the Cajuns came storming back.

When the game finally got to the third overtime, Louisiana pulled away outscoring the Eagles 13-6 in the final OT period to come away with the win. Freshman Skyler Goodwin scored a career high, and team high for the 2017-18 season, 28 points while missing a double-double by one rebound (finishing with nine) to help push the Cajuns over pass the finishing line.

Goodwin wasn't alone in the double-digit scoring category, as seniors Troi Swain (17 points) and Simone Fields (12 points) each dropped double-digits. While freshman Ty'Reonne Doucet finished with a double-double scoring 11 points and 10 rebounds.

THEY'VE NEVER SEEN ONE SO LONG: The game against the Eagles, was the longest game in the history of the SBC Women's Basketball Championships, but for the Cajuns it was familiar territory. On Dec. 3, 2017, the Cajuns' win (98-86) over McNeese went three-overtimes for what was the longest game in school history.

CAJUNS HAVE MADE THE QUARTERFINALS A HABIT: The win in the first round makes it four straight seasons that the Cajuns have won in the first round to advance to the quarterfinals at the SBC Championships. Overall in his career, Cajuns head coach Garry Brodhead is 5-1 in first round games as the Cajuns have become a staple in the SBC Championships quarterfinals.

WHAT THE LADY MAVS BRING: It's the third time the two teams have met this season, with the Lady Mavs taking both games, but not by a very big margin. UTA enters the game having won seven out of their last eight games, and a loss to Texas State to wrap up the season snapped a seven-game winning streak.

The first matchup between the two schools was in Arlington, Texas on Jan. 18, when a pair of free throws with under two seconds gave UTA a 63-61 win over the Cajuns. And the rematch, on Feb. 17 at the Cajundome, was a low scoring game that saw the Lady Mavs squeeze just past the Cajuns for a 38-34 win. Overall the scoring margin between the two teams, when combining both scores, sits at +6 for UTA, meaning that the quarterfinal matchup should be anyone's game to go get.

UTA brings All-SBC First Team member Rebekah VanDijk into the game and she's leading the team in scoring (14.6 ppg), field goal percentage (59.6), free throw percentage (72.5) and rebounds (9.0 rpg). Those numbers put VanDijk at the top of the conference in field goal percentage, second in rebounding, third in blocked shots and sixth in scoring.

As a team the Lady Mavs are middle of the road in scoring offense (seventh; 63.0 ppg), scoring defense (sixth; 63.2 ppg) and field goal percentage (fifth; .400). They also sit sixth in scoring margin, -0.3 and rebounding margin, -1.1, to give the Lady Mavs solid and consistent numbers across the board.

WHAT A WIN WOULD MEAN: A win would advance the Cajuns to the semifinals of the SBC Championships where they'd face the winner of the game between the second seeded Texas State Bobcats and seventh seeded Coastal Carolina Chanticleers, with that game scheduled to be play on Saturday, Mar. 10 starting at 7:30 p.m.

FOLLOWING THE RAGIN' CAJUNS: Follow the Cajuns on twitter @RaginCajunsWBB for updates during the game and links to the TV broadcast, radio broadcast, live stats and a link to the recap following the game.

#GEAUXCAJUNS

Women's Basketball Take On UTA In SBC Championships Quarters

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Players Mentioned

Ty'Reona Doucet

Simone Fields

Skyler Goodwin

Troi Swain

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