MARSHALL, Texas – Opening the season with a spotless record, the #12/14 East Texas Baptist University women's basketball team will hit the road for the Thanksgiving Holidays. The team heads to Colorado Springs, Colo., to take on Johnson & Wales University on Nov. 23 and Colorado College on Nov. 24. Entering this week's round of matchups, ETBU is 4-0 overall, winning each of their four games by an average of 28.2 points.
Leading the charge for the Tigers is
Kendrick Clark, who is averaging a team-high 12.8 points along with 2.0 steals per game this season. Valerie Matlock ranks second on the team in scoring with 8.5 points on an impressive 81.3 percent shooting from the floor. Matlock also leads the squad in steals per game at 3.0 through four games.
Kayla Bise is ETBU's No. 1 three point shooter, connecting on nine shots from distance at a 60 percent clip.
Anna Moss leads the way on the glass, collecting 5.5 rebounds through the first four.
Taylor Singleton rounds out the effort for the Tigers averaging 3.9 assists per game.
As a team, ETBU is averaging 74.5 points per game shooting 45.4 percent from the floor and 33.7 percent from beyond the arc. Defensively, ETBU has collected 62 steals and has forced a staggering 108 turnovers this season to go along with allowing just 46.2 points a night.
The Tigers will first take on Johnson & Wales University on Friday, Nov. 23. The Wildcats are 0-2 on the season, and will look to get into the win column this week. Leading the way for JWU is Katey Guzman, tallying 15 points in the first two games this season. This is the first meeting between these two ball clubs.
ETBU will round out their road trip with a matchup against the Colorado College Cougars on Saturday, Nov. 24. Entering this weekend's contest, CC is 1-1 overall, picking up a victory over Occidental College, 67-53, on Nov. 16. McKenzee Gertz leads the way for the Cougars, averaging 18.0 points on 48.3 percent shooting through two games.
Heading into the Mile High City matchups, Head Coach
Rusty Rainbolt emphasized the importance of his team being well conditioned to handle the altitude against the two Colorado teams.
"Honestly, it's going to be a factor. But no matter where we play we want our girls to play hard. We're going to do some extra conditioning this week to make sure we have our legs under us. Our substitution patterns may come a little quicker than normal but we just want to go out there and give it our all. Hopefully we can come back home with two more wins," Rainbolt said.
The first game is set to tip-off at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 23 against Johnson & Wales University.
