UTPB women's basketball fell just short of claiming the Heartland Conference Championships title Saturday afternoon in a 53-48 defeat against tournament #1 seed and regular season champion UA Fort Smith in Fort Smith, Ark.

The Falcons led just once in the first half but never let UA Fort Smith lead by more than three points on a day where both teams struggled from the field, each shooting under 30 percent for the day.

UTPB put its big run together coming out of halftime where the Falcons trailed 23-21. Texas-Permian Basin scored the first eight points of the second half, taking its first lead since 18:01 of the first when Valerie Barriga hit a 3-pointer to go ahead 24-23. Myangel Johnson followed with a layup off an offensive rebound and Barriga hit another shot from 3-point range a possession later to go ahead 29-23.

The Lions worked the score down to a single point two straight times, but three-pointers from Barriga and Giselle Loya put the Falcons back on top.

UAFS took back the lead on a three from Jasmine Brainard, but Loya countered with one of her own in UTPB's possession to go back ahead 41-39 with 7:15 remaining.

That was the last time the Falcons held the elad on the day as UA Fort Smith scored the next nine points to take a seven point, 48-41 lead.

UTPB got within three points two different times in the final two minutes, but were never able to close the gap any further in the five point loss.

Barriga led the team with 19 points on the afternoon, hitting 5-of-8 from 3-point range. Danielle Wilson led UTPB with 11 rebounds as she and Barriga were named to the Heartland Championshps All-Tournament Team.

Brainard led the Lions on the day with 15 rebounds while Angi Ramey grabbed 11 boards.