UT Arlington women reject Texas A&M-Commerce behind VanDijk

The UT Arlington women’s basketball team showed little rust from a seven-day break with an 80-50 victory over Texas A&M-Commerce on Sunday at College Park Center.

Junior center Rebekah VanDijk led the Mavericks (7-2) with 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Shelby Richards and Aysia Evans each added 12 for UTA, which is off to its best nonconference start since 2008-09.

VanDijk added three blocks to move into fourth place on the UTA career list with 118. Ericka Mattingly and Allyson Te’o each added three blocks for the Mavericks.

Cierra Johnson fueled UTA to a 23-9 first-quarter lead by scoring eight of her nine total points. UTA forced eight A&M-Commerce (8-3) turnovers in the first quarter.

UTA outrebounded A&M-Commerce 52-33 as Johnson and Te’o each had a game-high eight.

The Mavericks close their nonconference schedule at Texas Tech at 2 p.m. Thursday.

This story was originally published December 18, 2016 at 8:54 PM with the headline "UT Arlington women reject Texas A&M-Commerce behind VanDijk."