MARSHALL, Texas – After battling through a tight first quarter, the #12/13 East Texas Baptist University women's basketball team refueled their defense the rest of the way to pick up a 72-46 victory over Centenary College. ETBU is now 13-2 overall.
 
Kendrick Clark was ETBU's top scorer with 18 points while Hanna Hudson tallied a career-high 12 points. Kim Childress finished with nine points and was the team leader with seven rebounds. Sydney Saxton led the team in assists with six. Jasmine Morris finished with 11 points for Centenary.
 
ETBU made 40.3% from the field, which included 53.3% from the downtown. They also outrebounded CC 34-31, dished out 19 assists, and forced 37 turnovers. ETBU also added 35 bench points, 21 fast break points, 30 points in the paint, and 16 second chance points to lead up to the win.
 
The Tigers started the game trading points with CC as Amanda Wilson (8:18) and Hudson (7:24) would score to make it 5-5. But the Ladies would put together a 7-2 run (6:26-3:58) that would see them up by five, 12-7, which was their largest lead of the game. Clark responded with back-to-back three's (3:18-2:56) to give ETBU the lead 13-12. CC would tally four straight points (2:42-2:26) to go up 16-13 but Childress' three (1:18) and a pair of Lacey free throws (0:00) saw ETBU up 18-16 after one quarter.
 
CC tied the score at 18 on free throws (9:01) but the Tigers ran off ten unanswered points (8:16-5:42) to go up 28-18, which featured three's from Clark (6:59) and Hudson (5:48). A three-point play by CC (4:26) would be followed by an 8-2 run (4:02-1:20) as ETBU grabbed a 36-23 lead. Erin Meeks (4:02, 3:27) tallied four points in the stretch while Childress (1:20, 0:40) and Lacey (3:03, 0:14) would also finish with four points in the quarter as the Tigers led 40-25 at the break.
 
The third quarter would be a defensive struggle as ETBU put together a 10-3 run (10:00-3:44) to lead 50-28. Clark was the catalyst at the start and the end of the run with four points while April Matthews (8:15), Meeks (7:09), and Lacey (4:40) pitched in their points to complete the run. However, the final minutes of the quarter (2:48-0:26) saw the Ladies put in ten unanswered points to cut the margin to 50-38. It was a free throw by Wilson that saw the Tigers up 51-38 through three quarters.
 
ETBU would complete the fourth quarter with a 21-8 edge that started with a 9-0 run (10:00-8:18), which included five points from Taylor Singleton (9:47, 8:18). A jumper by CC (7:57) was answered by eight straight points from the Tigers (7:29-4:41) with Clark (7:29), Hudson (6:21), and Matthews (4:41) scoring in the run to lead 68-40, which happened to be ETBU's largest lead of the game. CC could get the game as close as 70-46 (1:28) before a layup from Hudson (1:06) ended the contest at 72-46.
 
ETBU will be back in action on Thursday night as they host Louisiana College at 5:30 PM in Ornelas Gym.