ARLINGTON – The Sam Houston Bearkats were unable to overcome a tough shooting game as they fell to UT Arlington 72-54 on Saturday afternoon at College Park Center.

The Bearkats shot a porous 35% from the field on 19-55 shooting. The teams both turned the ball over 19 times, while the Kats were out rebounded 39-32.

Sam Houston (1-1) took an early 10-4 lead in the first quarter with Faith Cook hitting two 3 pointers, but the lead fizzled as UTA (1-1) went on an 11-1 run to regain the lead at 15-11, and never relinquished it again.

The Kats would keep it within ten for most of the first half, trailing 33-25 at the break. They came out hot in the third quarter as Courtney Cleveland made a layup, Cook drained a 3, and Madelyn Batista put in two buckets to cut it to a two-point UTA advantage at 38-36.

That was as close as the Kats would get for the remainder. UTA closed out the quarter on a 13-6 run. They went on to outscore Sam Houston 21-12 in the fourth quarter to close the game out.

Faith Cook led the Bearkats with 19 points, shooting 4-7 from deep. She trailed only UTA's Starr Jacobs in scoring who posted 26 points on 11-16 shooting. Madelyn Batista put up 14 points and nine rebounds, barely missing the double-double.

Sam Houston will now head to Tulsa for a game with the Golden Hurricane on Monday at noon.