ALEXANDRIA, LA (02.01.18 ) - The UT Dallas women's basketball team kept its claws on the top spot in the American Southwest Conference's East Division Thursday night with a 56-52 road win over Louisiana College, giving the Comets a season sweep of the Wildcats for the third straight year.

The Comets never trailed in the contest, but held off a late surge by host LC when the Wildcats knotted the game, 34-34, with just under two minutes left in the third quarter. UTD answered with a free throw by Shannon Mathis and a late bucket by Raenett Hughes to take a three-point lead, 37-34, into the final quarter.

UTD got back-to-back field goals from Hughes and Victoria Pena to open the fourth stanza to quickly extend its lead to seven points, its largest of the period until the final minute. With 3:05 remaining, the Wildcats drew within a point, 43-42, on a Rachel Johnson lay up, but UTD responded with a 6-0 run over the next minute, four points coming from Hughes, to seemingly ice the game.

Kelly Skinner hit a late three-pointer for the Comets and Pena added two free throws with just 25 seconds left to actually ice the victory.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
Just five days after the Comets needed a season-high 81 points to hold off this same LC squad, UTD's defense bounced back by holding the Wildcats to just 33.3 percent accuracy and only two three-pointers on the night, the second coming with just four seconds remaining in the contest. The Wildcats hit just 2-of-11 treys (18.2%) after hitting seven long-range shots this past Saturday.

The Comets finished the night shooting 37.7 percent (23-of-61) from the field, connecting on 5-of-18 three-pointers (27.8%), and shot just 55.6 percent (5-of-9) from the line.

UTD out-rebound the Wildcats, 51-32, and forced 18 turnovers.

KEY PERFORMERS
Pena recorded her fifth 'double-double' of the season with 15 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Hughes matched Pena's team lead with 15 points of her own while Skinner had nine points. Madison Steele finished with eight points and nine boards.

NEXT GAME
The Comets (17-3, 11-2 ASC) will look for a fourth-straight victory Saturday afternoon when they visit Belhaven. Game time is 2 p.m. in Jackson, Miss.