TWU Holds Off Stingy TAMUK, 68-61

Texas Woman’s never could get a comfortable lead but always kept Texas A&M-Kingsville at bay in Thursday’s quarterfinal matchup at Allen Event Center.

      The Pioneers hit enough clutch baskets down the stretch to pull away for a 68-61 win over the Javelinas to advance to Friday’s semifinal round. As the No. 3 seed in the LSC Championships, TWU (16-11) will face second-seeded Tarleton State.

      The win also helped the Pioneers’ chances of making the eight-team regional tournament. They currently have the eighth spot in the regional rankings.

      The season ends for Kingsville at 11-16, despite winning three straight games to enter the tournament.

      The Pioneers got balanced scoring from three players in double-figures, led by Rebekah Cluley’s 17 points. Danielle Westerfrield added 13, while Barbara-Scott Kolb chipped in with 12. All three of them hit key baskets in the final few minutes to keep the Javelinas from making it too interesting.

      Late shots from A&M-Kingsville got them as close as six in the final minutes but would eventually fall by seven. Ruby Robertson led all scorers with 18 points. Ashley Viera had 15 points. Rosalie Cutri had a balanced game with just three points, but had eight rebounds, four assists and five steals.

      The Pioneers had 22 turnovers but were able to limit the Javelinas to just 27.9 percent shooting, including 11 of 35 in the second half.

      After TWU grabbed a 28-22 halftime lead, the Javelinas didn’t score their first field goal in the second half until the 15:24 mark. Kingsville only managed 10 points in the first 12 minutes of the second half.

A 3-pointer by Viera pulled the Javelinas to within five at 45-40 with 7:23 to go. But a 3-point response by Cluely, followed by a layup from Westerfield pushed the lead back to 10. After a Kingsville layup, Kolb drilled a 3 to push the lead back to 11 with 5:44 to play.

This game far from resembled the last meeting between the two squads when TWU won a 107-02 triple-overtime thriller down in Kingsville on Feb. 12.

Texas Woman’s Notes

The win is the first for TWU in the LSC Tournament since the 2010-11 season. They are now 7-9 all-time in the tournament, and are 4-7 in first-round contests.
It is the first neutral-site win of the season for the Pioneers, who were previously 0-4 on a neutral floor.
Senior Mary Kovtun finished with a career-high 11 rebounds, surpassing her previous career high of nine, which she had achieved three times.
Rebekah Cluley finished with 17 points, reaching double figures for the 19th time this season.
Danielle Westerfield’s 13 points were just two shy of her season high and is her most since a Jan. 29 win at A&M-Commerce, and just the third time she has reached double-figure scoring vs a LSC opponent this season.
The Pioneers finished just 16 of 28 from the foul line, wining for just the second time this year when shooting below 65 percent from the charity stripe. They were previously 1-4 in those games, having dropped the last four.
It is the first time since Jan. 29 (10 games) in which an opponent has scored 60 points in a Pioneer victory.

Texas A&M-Kingsville Notes

At 11-16, finished with school’s best record since 2009-10 season.
This season marked TAMUK’s first trip to Allen to play in the LSC Championship. It is their first tournament appearance since 2009-10.
Javelinas closed 1st half with a 8-1 run, cutting the Pioneers’ lead to 6.
TAMUK shot just 23% from the field in the first half (6-26), finished the contest at 28%.
As the LSC’s leader in steals (11.1 per game), TAMUK stole the ball seven times in the first eight minutes of the game while forcing 14 TWU turnovers in the half. They finished the contest with 11 total steals, five coming from Rosalie Cutri.
Ruby Robertson came off the bench to lead TAMUK in scoring at the half with seven points. She finished with18 points, leading the Javelinas in scoring for just the second time this season.
Ashley Viera went 4-7 from beyond the arc and 50% from the field to score 15 points.