MARSHALL, Texas – Ringing in the New Year staying undefeated at home, the East Texas Baptist women's basketball game delivered a Happy New Year's celebration with a 73-57 win over Concordia University-Texas. ETBU moves to 9-2 overall and 3-0 in the American Southwest Conference East Division while staying at 7-0 in Ornelas gym.

It was the second quarter that was the difference as ETBU outscored Concordia-Texas, 24-11. Leading by just one point, 17-16, at the 7:34 mark, ETBU went on a 17-2 run over six minutes to take command of the game, 34-18.

Two ETBU's players scored in double figures as Taylee Alexander led the team with a double-double with 17 points, and 11 rebounds. April Leonard also contributed with 16 points. Malaisia Chisholm eight points and seven rebounds while Morgan Garrett tallied eight points, four rebounds, and two assists. For Concordia, Jaela Dejean led the Tornadoes with 12 points. Kaelin Domingeaux had 11 points and six rebounds while Isis Johnson led her team with 10 rebounds.

As a team, ETBU dominated in every shooting category. They outshot Concordia-Texas 46.8% to 29.4% from the field, 44.4% to 30.4% from behind the arc, and 70% to 52.6% from the free throw line. They also won the rebounding battle 45-41, dished out more assists by a tally of 17 to nine, and stole the ball eight times vs. seven.

“Since I've gotten here this has been the most fun game I've had to coach,” said head coach Edsel Hamilton. “They were just fun to watch today. We worked really, really hard and played together sharing the ball. We communicated defensively, too. This was probably our most complete win so far this season as far as from start to finish, doing things the way that we want to do them. I was very happy with the way the girls played today.”

In the first quarter, ETBU outscored Concordia 15-12. Concordia got its first and only lead of the game on a three-point basket to start the game. From then on, ETBU took the lead on a lay-up by Lauren Lee and never looked back. Twice, Concordia cut the lead to one point before ETBU opened up the game even more offensively. Leonard's three-pointer at the 3:00 mark made the score 11-5 in ETBU's favor. After a three-pointer by Concordia-Texas cut the lead to one, 13-12, Alexander made a layup with nine seconds to play ending the first quarter scoring.

ETBU took command of the second quarter outscoring Concordia-Texas 24-11. Concordia-Texas was able to get ETBU's lead to 17-16 before five straight points from Leonard started the 17-2 run. Alexander had six points in the quarter while Leonard had eight points. A big contributor to the second quarter was Garrett, who got all eight of her points in the quarter, which included two three-pointers in a row and a two-point buzzer beater to close out the first half giving ETBU a 39-23 edge at halftime.

“My teammates were really executing out there while we was cheering them on,” said Cekret Davis. “They kept their composure the whole time and we played through some of the close moments to pull away.”

In the third quarter, Concordia compiled a 9-4 run to bring the score to 43-32. That was when ETBU took off on a 13-4 run to close out the quarter. After Alexander's three free throws, a three-pointer by Davis and a layup plus a free throw by Leonard made it 52-33. Only when Davis hit a buzzer-beater to end the third quarter did ETBU increase their lead to 20, 56-36, to end the quarter.

In the fourth quarter, a pair of three-pointers by Kaitlyn Packett gave ETBU their largest lead of the game at 62-38 at the 8:19 mark. Concordia-Texas did make one final effort to cut into the lead but it was too large a lead to catch as ETBU cruised to a 73-57 victory.

ETBU will travel on the road this Thursday to Brownwood to take on Howard Payne. Tip off starts at 5:30 pm