LONGVIEW, Texas - Holding Benedictine College, who has seven wins, to just 14 points in the first half, the East Texas Baptist University women's basketball team ended the LeTourneau University Classic 2-0 with a 66-51 victory. ETBU is now 6-3 on the year.

Kim Childress (15 points), Amanda Wilson (13 points), and Kendrick Clark (11 points) combined for 39 points on the game. Clark would also share the assists lead at five with Kaia Williams and Hanna Hudson. Hudson also led the team with nine rebounds. The Eagles only had one double-digit scorer in Allison Michalski, who recorded 11 points.  

Making 51.85% from the field in the first quarter the Tigers would end up shooting 43.5% overall , including 35.7% from the three-point line. ETBU's defense would hold BC to 28.8% from the field and 25.9% from three-point range. ETBU managed to get an edge in points in the paint (36-16), points off turnovers (18-13), and rebounds (51-37).  

ETBU's top three scorers would put the Tigers up 12-2 (10:00-6:05) with Wilson scoring half of the points. A three-pointer by BC was followed by seven unanswered points from Grace Stephens (4:13), Clark (3:44), and Haley Fiesler (3:15). The Eagles would end the quarter on a 7-1 run to trail 20-12 after the first quarter with Childress getting the lone point in the run.  

The difference of the game would be ETBU's defense in the second quarter who would hold BC to just 1-of-14 from the field. Wilson would hit the first two jumpers for four points (7:42, 7:20). BC would get their only basket at 7:12 before the Tigers went on an offensive surge of 11 straight points. While Clark (5:22) and Stephens (1:51) would add to their point totals, Bianca Bowring (4:45), April Matthews (2:21), and Anna Moss (1:21) would get on the scoreboard to set ETBU's halftime lead to 35-14.  

BC would score the first points of the third quarter, but watched as ETBU would put up 12 of the next 15 points. Childress (8:41, 8:16, 4:53) and Fiseler (6:14, 5:29) combined for 11 to lead, 47-19, which was their largest lead of the game. Five straight points from BC would lead to a 15-2 surge (4:36-0:36) in the next four minutes. Matthews would score the final bucket to end the third with ETBU up, 51-34.  

ETBU would get the 20-point lead back on a three-point play from Williams (9:18) to start the fourth quarter. The Eagles would work their way back to within 17 points (7:46) on a 5-2 run. Three-pointers by Childress (6:46) and Hudson (6:04) plus a Clark jumper completed an 8-0 run (6:46-4:28) for a 66-39 lead. BC would make the contest closer to 15 points, 66-51, but it was ETBU who closed out the game for their sixth win.


The Tigers will open 2020 with their first American Southwest Conference game against Hardin-Simmons at 5:30 PM on January 2 in Abilene.