MARSHALL, Texas – Starting off 2019 picking up where they left off before Christmas Break, the East Texas Baptist University women's basketball team will resume their season this week with a pair of games, one at home and one on the road. ETBU will start the week facing nationally ranked Texas Dallas in Richardson on Thursday and then host Centenary College on Saturday.
Last weekend, ETBU continued their winning ways with two wins against McMurry University at 79-48 and Hardin Simmons University at 62-47.
Kendrick Clark led ETBU's win against McM with 21 points while
Amanda Wilson was the catalyst in the HSU game with a double-double (13 points, 13 rebounds).
ETBU brings a six-game winning streak into this week as they are 12-1 overall and 6-1 in the ASC East along with being ranked 12/13 in the latest polls. Clark remains ETBU's scoring leader with 14.7 points per game on a team averaging 75.4 ppg. Wilson has blocked a team-high 15 shots while
Anna Moss averages 4.8 rebounds per game. The guards of
Sydney Saxton and
Valarie Matlock each lead in a category with 3.5 assists per game and 2.7 steals per game respectively.
The Tigers face a strong foe in the ASC East Division on Thursday against the Comets of UTD. ETBU has taken the last two games, including the ASC Conference Tournament semifinal 66-61 and the second round of the NCAA DIII Tournament 64-51. This season, the Comets are 9-4 and 4-2 in conference play. Coming off a 78-75 loss to #2 Thomas More University, UTD is averaging 70.8 ppg. Raenett Hughes leads the squad in scoring (15.8 ppg), rebounding (7.5 rpg), and assists (34). Victoria Pena (13.3 ppg) and Katie Gunther (10.4 ppg) also average double-figures in scoring.
Assistant coach
Caleb Henson talks about taking on a talented team in UTD on Thursday. "UT Dallas has a core group of kids with a lot of experience over multiple years," said Coach Henson. "It's going to be an enormous challenge for us going up there. We lost two regular season games to UT Dallas last season both at their place and at Ornelas. It took until the postseason for us to get a win. This is a whole different team. This is not last year's team. They don't have last year's team. It's going to be a fun challenge, but still a very high-level of competition."
Later on Saturday, ETBU hosts CC. The Ladies are 4-10 with their last win on Saturday, 80-73, against Johnson & Wales. Savanah Doty leads the team with 9.8 ppg and 2.2 apg while Haylee Washington grabs a team-leading 5.8 rpg.
ETBU's first game starts at 5:30 PM while Saturday's contest begins at 1:00 PM.
