MARSHALL, Texas – Holding off a late Belhaven University rally, the East Texas Baptist University women's basketball recorded a 72-68 win on Thursday night in Ornelas Gym. ETBU enters the final game of the season at 18-6 overall and 12-3 in the American Southwest Conference East Division.
Kim Childress propelled ETBU's offense with 21 points while
Taylor Singleton tallied 14 points.
Amanda Wilson recorded 10 rebounds while collecting six points. Off the bench,
Mallory Stephens finished with eight points. BU had four double-figure scorers in Keke Lyles (16 points), Peyton Papenburg (15 points), Mariah Collins (14 points), Sydney Martin (10 points).
Outshooting BU (43.1%-33.3%) from the field, ETBU wound up out rebounding the Blazers, 43-38, and would dominate the paint, 44-26. BU would finish with the three-point edge (5-2) and made 90% from the free throw line in contrast to ETBU's 80%. In addition, BU would take control of the fast break outscoring ETBU, 27-21.
ETBU began the first quarter on a 9-4 run (10:00-5:37) with Childress putting up five points in the stretch. Six straight points by the Blazers (5:37-3:14) would give them their first lead of the contest, 10-9, only for
Haley Fieseler to retake the lead (2:57), 11-10. BU then put up five straight points to lead, 15-11. The Tigers would end the first quarter ahead by one as
April Matthews (1:27) and Childress (0:52, 0:35) would make layups and a free throw for a 16-15 edge after one.
Exchanging points early in the second quarter, both teams were knotted at 20 (7:35). But for the remainder of the quarter, ETBU would score 19 of the next 25 points to take a 39-26 lead at the break. Beginning with a Singleton layup (7:30), ETBU would surge on a 12-2 run (7:30-2:56) that would include four points from
Mallory Stephens (4:52-4:24) and Clark (2:20-2:00). BU would cut the lead to 32-24 only for ETBU to find the double-digit lead again. A three from
Missie Kilo would put ETBU up by 13 points entering halftime, 39-26.
ETBU would control the first part of the third quarter getting points from Singleton (8:01), Childress (6:47), and Wilson (6:23) to lead by their largest margin of 14 points, 45-31. The Blazers countered that with nine straight points (6:12-4:43) to trail by five, 45-40, but watched as Clark (3:58) and Stephens (3:38) pushed ETBU's lead back to 10 points, 50-40. Again, BU would cut the lead to five points before Singleton free throws would put ETBU up 54-47 after the third quarter.
The fourth quarter would follow a pattern as BU cut the score to within six points only for ETBU to push their lead back to 10 points. With 5:22 left, the Blazers trailed, 64-58, before ETBU would put up a 5-2 rally to lead 69-60 with 2:23 to go. Yet again, the Blazers would not back down as six unanswered points brought them to within 69-66. Childress (0:30) and Bowring (0:08) would each sink a free throw to push the score to 71-66. Although BU came within 71-68 with four seconds left, it was Singleton who iced the win with a free throw.
ETBU will honor six seniors on Saturday as they will take on Louisiana College at 1:00 PM.
