ABILENE, Texas - Despite a sluggish start, the East Texas Baptist University women's basketball team grinded out a 75-69 win against McMurry University to complete their Abilene road trip at 2-0. This win helps ETBU move to 11-1 overall with a four-game winning streak and 5-0 in conference play.
ETBU was led by
Katy Boren, who posted 19 points including five three's in the game.
Kim Childress had 11 points while
Erin Meeks was one point shy of a double-double to go with her eleven rebounds. The point guards of
Madison McCoy and
Sydney Saxton combined for five assists each. McM was led by Dominique Machuca, who scored 17 points. Also in the double-digit club for the War Hawks were Sham Hunter (14 points), Monica Jones (14 points), and Sarah Doherty (11 points).
ETBU won the shooting battle with an edge in field-goal percentage (43.3%-33.3%) and three-point percentage (44.4%-36.7%). While McM had the edge in free-throw shooting (80%-62.5%) and were even with 42 rebounds along with ETBU, the Tigers dominated the paint with a 28-8 advantage and used 26 points from their bench while McM used 10 points from theirs.
A scoreless minute would be followed by five straight points (8:31-8:04) by the Warhawks to lead 5-0. Boren got ETBU on the board with a three-pointer at 7:45 to trail 5-3. McM then went on a 8-3 run (6:47-4:35) to lead 13-6. Three-pointers by McHenry (4:18) and Stephens (2:40) made it 13-12 only to have McM finish the first quarter with an 8-0 run to lead 21-12.
The second quarter saw the War Hawks' lead would go to 26-13 with 7:55 left to go. Then, ETBU answered with nine straight points courtesy of threes by Boren (7:32),
Madison McCoy (6:58), and a layup by Meeks (5:17) plus a McCoy free throw (4:49) to trail 26-22. A three by McM (4:38) stopped the run as McM led 29-22. However, ETBU would answer on free throws by
Sydney Saxton and a basket by
Amanda Wilson (2:04) to trail 29-26. Each team scored one final point and McM took a 31-29 lead going into halftime.
The second half once again played well for ETBU as they started with a 9-5 run (10:00-6:56) to lead 38-36. McM then answered with eight straight points to grab a 44-38 lead with 5:20 to play. Still, ETBU would answer with a 9-1 run (4:47-1:31), which ended on a three by Boren that would put ETBU up for good for the remainder of the game. McM's attempt to tie the game on free throws (1:06) never happened as ETBU would would get layups by Childress (0:58) and
Baylie Lindsey (0:38) before a Boren three (:03) made the score 54-47 after three quarters.
ETBU would reach double-digits after baskets by Childress (9:56) and Meeks (7:58) made it 58-47. The Tigers would spend the next minute ahead by double-digits until McM delivered a three that made it 62-54 (6:10). The War Hawks would make it 63-59 following a 5-1 run with 3:47 to play. But back to back baskets by Lindsey (3:31) and McCoy (3:07) pushed the lead to 67-59. With 2:16 to go, McM delivered a three to make it 67-64. But it was Boren who answered twenty seconds later with the decisive shot on a three and ETBU led 70-64. Each team would finish scoring five points apiece and ETBU finished. The War Hawks would make a small rally making it a 72-69 lead with fifteen seconds left. In the end, free throws by Saxton and McCoy iced the win for ETBU at 75-69.
With two games on this road trip down and one to go, ETBU will head to Brownwood for a showdown against Howard Payne at 5:30 PM on Monday.
TV: KTAL-Sports Highlights
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