MARSHALL, Texas – Looking to finish off a three-game home stand before Christmas break, the East Texas Baptist University women's basketball team will face rival LeTourneau University on Thursday night. ETBU comes into the game ranked 13
th in the WBCA Poll and 15
th in the D3hoops.com poll.
In their past two meetings against Sul Ross State University and Howard Payne University, ETBU averaged 81.5 points per game while holding both teams to 51.5 ppg. Against SRSU, ETBU held the Lobos to 28% shooting in the 82-54 win while their defense allowed HPU to score six points in the third quarter in the 81-49 win.
Kendrick Clark was the top scorer for ETBU with 13 and 18 points respectively while
Kayla Bise tacked on 12 and 15 points in the wins.
After 10 games, Clark is ETBU's scoring leader by averaging 14.2 ppg while
Valarie Matlock maintains a 3.1 steals per game average.
Taylor Singleton still dishes out 3.8 assists per game, which leads the team while
Anna Moss has 50 rebounds. Moss also shares the blocks lead of eight along with
April Matthews and
Amanda Wilson.
ETBU came away with two wins last season vs. LETU in the rival game. The Yellow Jackets are currently 2-7 overall and are winless in four conference games to date. Averaging 55.3 ppg, LETU is led by Sha'Donnaver Young, who averages 10.6 ppg while Jaila Leaven is one-tenth point off from averaging double-figures while Keauna Whitfield leads with 8.2 rpg and 2.9 apg.
With the ETBU-LETU rivalry set to get going this week, head coach
Rusty Rainbolt won't take into consideration the difference in records as the intensity will be there. "You can look at the records, stats, and all that stuff and that's just fool's gold," said Coach Rainbolt. "You have to prepare and put in a good seed to get out a good fruit in the end. If we want to come out to the gym on Thursday and have a great chance to win, you have to prepare like every other game. Coach Rozanski's done a great job in trying to get her kids to fit in the culture in the way they want to play. They're going to play hard. Honestly, with ETBU and LeTourneau, whether we're playing jalapeno eating contest or basketball, and baseball, we know we're going to get their best."
The game starts at 5:30 PM at Ornelas Gym on Thursday night.
