To stay in the race for the fourth and final spot in the Heartland Conference tournament race, the Texas A&M women’s basketball team had to do something it’s never done before — beat Arkansas-Fort Smith.

The Dustdevils did just that on Saturday, grabbing their biggest win of the season, 61-45, over UAFS.

“I am most proud of them for responding after such a heartbreaker Thursday night,” said TAMIU coach Michelle Bento-Jackson, referencing the team’s 73-70 overtime loss at the buzzer to Newman. “They came out and kept their focus throughout the duration of the game. I was really proud of them keeping focused on what we needed to do.”

In the past four seasons, the Dustdevils have lost all seven matchups with Fort Smith. This game held significant importance, however, as a Lions win would have dropped TAMIU a half-game back without the tiebreaker and with just two league games remaining, which count toward their conference record.

Instead, TAMIU improves to 4-6 in league play while Fort Smith drops to 2-6. The Lions have four league games remaining to try and catch up. Newman (8-13, 3-5) is also suddenly in the race with four left after a buzzer beater against the Dustdevils Thursday and a stunning 55-53 upset on the road over co-Heartland leader St. Mary’s on Saturday.

“Every game is so big for us,” Bento-Jackson said. “It’s still going to go down to the wire and every game we have to keep our focus and intensity every single possession.”

The Dustdevils attacked offensively from behind the arc. With Fort Smith sitting back in a zone, TAMIU hit 10 of its 26 3-point attempts. The team has only had more 3’s on one occasion this year, in a road matchup with the Lions (12) on Jan. 1.

Guard Tina Dang responded from a season-low scoring output of just one point in Thursday’s loss to UTPB with 18 on 6-of-16 shooting, including four from behind the arc. The team’s leading scorer at 13 points per game had averaged just 6.5 the last six games after scoring 18.6 per contest the previous eight.

“She missed her first couple shots and I just wanted to tell her to stay focused,” Bento-Jackson said. “You can’t worry about the last shot, it’s always about the next one. I knew she was going to get a lot more shots against that zone and she had good balance not just settling for the 3. It’s important for us to get her going.”

Junior Samantha Chacon had 15 points, seven rebounds and a season-high 10 assists. Amanda Mangan scored eight points and pulled down 12 rebounds — her most in 2013.

The Dustdevils will prepare for a Thursday game at McMurry at 5:30 p.m., which will not count towards the team’s conference record, before a potentially pivotal game in Austin against St. Edward’s Saturday at 2 p.m.