PINEVILLE, La. — The UT Tyler basketball teams split a doubleheader against Louisiana College on Thursday at H.O. West Fieldhouse.

In the women’s game, the Patriots won over LC 74-63 for their third straight win.

In the men’s game, the Wildcats downed UT Tyler 78-68.

The Patriots return to play on Saturday, traveling to Jackson, Mississippi to meet Belhaven in a doubleheader.

The women’s game is scheduled for 1 p.m., followed by the men at 3 p.m.

The Patriots return home on Thursday, Jan. 17 to play host to rival UT Dallas at the Herrington Patriot Center. Games are set for 5:30 p.m. (women) and 7:30 p.m. (men).

WOMEN

Bianca Valderrama led the Patriots with 27 points with Carissa Spiker contributing a doubledouble.

Valderrama, a 5-8 senior forward from Corpus Christi, was 13 of 19 from the field.

Spiker, a 5-10 junior guard from Sanger, added 10 points and 11 rebounds, while Aubree Adams, a 6-1 freshman forward from Marble Falls, added 14 points.

Tori Shoemaker, a 6-3 sophomore center from Godley, had a near double-double for the Patriots with nine points and eight boards.

Kourtney McGhee, a 5-6 senior guard from Simmesport, Louisiana, led the Wildcats with 18 points.

MEN

The Patriots led 34-31 at halftime, but the Wildcats got going in the second half, outscoring UT Tyler 47-34.

Tyrick Bennett (6-1, junior guard, Dallas) and Darius Alford (5-10, freshman guard, Houston) led the Patriots (6-8) with 16 points apiece. Chris Craig (6-3, freshman guard, Denton) had a near double-double with nine points and 11 rebounds. Omar Mohamed (6-7, junior forward, Denton) pitched in nine points.

Devon Washington led the Wildcats (12-2) with 18 points and 10 boards. Denzel Austin added 16 points with Kae’ron Baker contributing 11.

UCONN 76, SMU 64

STORRS, Conn. (AP) — UConn coach Dan Hurley woke up Thursday to a text message from guard Jalen Adams. UConn’s star wanted to let his coach know that he was locked in and ready for a fight.

Adams scored 21 points, Alterique Gilbert added 19 and UConn snapped a three-game losing streak with a 76-64 win over SMU on Thursday night.

Christian Vital chipped in with 11 points and seven rebounds for the Huskies (10-6, 1-2 American Athletic Conference), who had lost their first two conference games.

Hurley said he had been under the covers, worrying about his team, before his phone went off at about 8 a.m.

“When I saw that, I sprung out of bed…and was recharged,” he said. “Just to see that this morning, I knew he was going to be good today.”

Adams hit seven of his 10 shots and the Huskies shot 52 percent from the floor, including a blistering 65 percent as they built a 42-31 halftime lead.

Warren leads UT Arlington past Appalachian St.

BOONE, N.C. (AP) — Former Tyler Junior College standout Brian Warren had 20 points on 9-of-15 shooting as UT Arlington topped Appalachian State 82-72 on Thursday night, extending the Mountaineers’ losing streak to four games.

David Azore had 16 points and a career-high 11 rebounds — the freshman’s first double-double — for UTA (5-11, 1-2 Sun Belt Conference) and ex-TJC standout TiAndre Jackson-Young added 14 points.

Appalachian State led for more of the first half and took a 32-28 lead into the break but Jackson-Young sandwiched a pair of 3-pointers around another by Warren to open the second half and the Mavericks led by at least two possessions the rest of the way. UTA scored a season-high 54 second-half points.

Ronshad Shabazz had 16 points for the Mountaineers (5-11, 0-3) and his jumper with 5:19 to play moved him past Don King (1,794) into second on the program’s career scoring list. Isaac Johnson added 16 points and O’Showen Williams scored 13.

WOMEN

NO. 1 NOTRE DAME 82, NO. 2 LOUISVILLE 68

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — As far as Arike Ogunbowale and coach Muffet McGraw were concerned, No. 1 Notre Dame’s 82-68 victory over No. 2 Louisville on Thursday night was just another Atlantic Coast Conference game in January.

“Any game in the ACC is a big win; there’s a lot of great teams and a lot of upsets going on,” Ogunbowale said after scoring 26 of her game-high 30 points in the second half to help the Fighting Irish overcome 18 turnovers to beat the Cardinals in the 59th No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown in women’s college basketball history and the second involving Notre Dame this season.

“That was just a great basketball game,” McGraw said after her Fighting Irish (15-1, 3-0) won their eighth straight and first game since regaining the top spot from Connecticut, which beat then-No. 1 Notre Dame 89-71 on Dec. 2 in the last meeting of the top two teams. “For 1 vs. 2, it was everything you wanted to see. It was a great win in terms of the conference, but it’s still early and we’ve got a lot of games to play.”

It was Ogunbowale’s 37th straight double-digit scoring game — she had just five points in Notre Dame’s 100-67 loss at Louisville on Jan. 11, 2018.