Box Score SEGUIN, Texas – Fighting down to the bitter end of overtime, East Texas Baptist University (4-2) came up three points short of defeating Texas Lutheran University (3-2), 82-79, in women's basketball at the Thanksgiving Classic. Taylee Alexander collected a career-high 21 points to lead ETBU.
After Alexander's career-high, Malaisia Chisholm tied her career-high with 19 points. Morgan Garrett added 10 points and Chisholm led the team with eight rebounds. Texas Lutheran's Taylor Dydalewicz led her team with 20 points.
In overtime, Texas Lutheran went on a 7-0 run in the first two minutes for a seven-point lead, 71-64. ETBU came back to within two, 76-74, with 48 seconds left in the game on three straight made free throws from Garrett. TLU moved the lead back to six, 80-74, with 22 seconds left but an Ambrosia Woodard lay up put ETBU within four. After fouling TLU, the Bulldogs made two free throws as the lead went back to six points. Kaitlyn Packett nailed a three-pointer with eight seconds left to pull within three, 82-79, and ETBU's last second three-pointer with three seconds left in overtime fell short to end the game.
The fourth quarter was the closest quarter of them all as both teams battled to take the lead. ETBU was down five, 50-45, at the 6:48 mark but fought back to take the lead 53-51 at the 5:26 on a Chisholm jump shot. ETBU then had a five-point lead, 63-58, with 1:18 left in the game when Lauren Lee completed a three-point play. TLU scored the next score the next six points on a three-pointer and a converted three-point play for the one-point lead, 64-63. With one second left, ETBU's Alexander made one-of-two free throws to send the game to overtime.
The first two quarters of the game saw TLU win both quarters. TLU had a 22-16 lead after the first quarter and a 35-33 advantage at the half. ETBU started the game off on a 6-2 run but TLU took the lead 19-16 with 2:47 to go in the quarter. They kept that lead into the second quarter until ETBU went ahead 31-28 on back-to-back lay ups from Raziya Chase. In the final four minutes, TLU outscored ETBU, 7-2, for the two-point lead at the half.
ETBU never had the lead in the third quarter as TLU was up by as many as eight, 45-37.
Overall, ETBU shot 44 percent and made 90 percent from the line (10-of-11) but shot just 18 percent from the three-point line (3-of-16). TLU finished shooting 38 percent overall, 26 percent from the arc (5-of-19), and shot 78 percent from the line making 29-of-37 free throws. ETBU turned the ball over 27 times and gave up 22 points but scored 25 points off of TLU's 26 turnovers. Both teams had 43 rebounds.
ETBU will be home on Thursday, December 3rd, hosting McMurry University at 5:30 p.m.
