#3 UTPB women's basketball advanced to Saturday afternoon's 2015 Heartland Conference Championships title game with a 71-51 victory over #2 St. Mary's Friday night at the Stubblefield Center in Fort Smith, Ark., in the opening game of the Heartland Conference Women's Basketball Championships.

The Falcons started to break away from a tight game when Trish Simpson broke an 18-18 tie game with a layup at 9:14 of the first and hit a free throw after being fouled on the play. Danielle Wilson put the Falcons up 23-18 with a pair at the line a minute and a half later.

UTPB doubled up its lead when Keyondra White hit a 3-pointer and Valerie Barriga nailed a pair at the free throw line to go ahead 28-18 on a 10-0 run.

St. Mary's responded with the next five points, but the Falcons countered with nine consecutive points of their own to go ahead 37-23 in the final minute of the half. Barriga scored the last bucket of the first, a layup, to give UTPB a 39-27 lead at halftime.

The Falcons came out strong to start the second half when Brianna Jones hit a three and Myangel Johnson scored in the paint to build the lead out to 44-27 after the first two possessions.

UTPB controlled the second half, leading by as many as 25 points when Barriga started a seven point run with two at the line. Jones added a 3-pointer the next time down the court and Danielle Wilson put in a layup to grab a 66-41 lead with 6:39 remaining.

Brianna Jones tied her best night of the season with a 6-9 performance behind the arc to lead all players in the game with 20 points. Barriga double-doubled with 13 points and a team-best 11 rebounds to go with seven assists. Johnson had 14 points on a 7-of-9 night from the field with six boards and Wilson added 10 points and six rebounds.

The Falcons take on tournament host and #1 overall seed UA Fort Smith at 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon. The Lions won both previous meetings this season, most recently defeating UTPB 85-54 in Arkansas five weeks ago.