No. 20 Arizona women rip Texas Southern with big second half

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Cate Reese and Esmery Martinez had double-doubles and No. 20 Arizona held Texas Southern to 14 second-half points in an 89-55 victory on Wednesday night in a Pac-12/SWAC Legacy Series game.

Reese had 20 points and 10 rebounds and Martinez added 16 points with 12 rebounds for Arizona (8-1). Maya Nnaji scored 11 points and Jade Loville 10.

Leading 51-40 at halftime, Arizona extended its lead in the third quarter, holding Texas Southern without a field goal and forcing 10 turnovers in the first 8-plus minutes of the second half. Arizona outscored the Tigers 26-6 to take a 77-46 lead into the fourth quarter.

Much like the third quarter, Texas Southern went nearly the first 5 1/2 minutes of the fourth without a field goal until Jaelynn Compton hit a 3-pointer with 4:31 remaining.

Andriana Avent made 6 of 10 3-pointers and led Texas Southern (0-9) with 21 points.

The Wildcats shot 61% and the Tigers 46% in the first quarter and Arizona didn’t get much separation until the final minute of the quarter when Paris Clark had a three-point play followed by a layup from Lemyah Hylton for a 28-17 lead.

The double-digit lead didn’t last long as the Tigers cut their deficit to four with a 13-6 run to open the second quarter. The Wildcats pushed the lead back to 11 by halftime. Arizona had 32 points in the paint, had 18 fast-break points, made 13 layups and scored 13 points off 15 TSU turnovers in the first half.

The teams combined for 50 turnovers — 30 by Texas Southern and 20 by Arizona.

___

AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25