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TWU
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Life > Athletics > Basketball > 2002-03
News > February 27
PIONEER BASKETBALL
HOLDS ON TO BEAT WILDCATS
ABILENE,
TX—Texas Woman's University (10-15, 6-7
LSC) shot a season-high 50.8 percent from the field and road
an early 12-0 lead all the way to the finish, beating Abilene
Christian (15-13, 6-7 LSC) for the fourth straight
time, 83-81. The Pioneers had four players score in double
figures with junior guard Sonya Hodge (Eustace, TX/Paris
J.C.) leading the way with 19 points to go along with her
five rebounds and five assists.
“We came into tonight's game knowing that we had to control
the boards and limit two of their post players from scoring
big numbers on us to get a win. The team did a real nice job
of executing that game plan and it paid off for us tonight,” head
coach Devin Gabbard said. “Sonya Hodge played great tonight,
scoring 19 points and keeping us in a rhythm all night. Jessica
Springer stepped up on the defensive end by cleaning up the
boards and making some key stops on their post players.”
Junior post Daphne
Lyons (Flower Mound, TX/Louisiana-Monroe) took
the Pioneers out in front early as she hit four of the team's
first six field goals, making the score 12-0 after four minutes
of play. Abilene Christian's Ashley King hit a three-pointer,
then Jenny Jackson added a short jumper to close the gap to
seven points, 12-5, but that would be as close as the Wildcats
would come for the rest of the first period. With the score
18-9, Julie Prescher (Valley View, TX/Valley View H.S.) dropped
two straight three pointers to push the Pioneer lead to 15
points at the 10:47 mark. The Wildcats closed the gap to nine
after Meredith Doyle hit a three, but Sonya Hodge answered
with two straight field goals and Meaghan Lewis (Celeste,
TX/Blinn College) added another three pointer to give
TWU their biggest lead of the half, 38-22, with three minutes
left. ACU ended the first period on a 12-5 run to go into halftime
down 43-36. The Pioneers shot 56% from the field and out-rebounded
the Wildcats 25 to 17 to take the advantage.
ACU
opened the second half by missing their first six field goal
attempts and committed four turnovers as the Pioneers
built a 17-point, 55-38, lead after five minutes of play. TWU
kept a double-digit lead through most of the second period
until Kiersten Barbee nailed a three to close the gap to eight,
63-55 with 8:08 on the clock. Lewis and Hodge
hit back-to-back threes to open the Pioneer lead back to double
digits, 76-64, with five minutes left. Tiesha Wady (Cooper,
TX/ Tyler J.C.) added a jumper with 4:03 on the clock
to make the score 80-67, but the Wildcats would not die and
went on a 14-1 run to tie the game at 81 with a minute left. Jennifer
Ferrell (Flower Mound, TX/Paris J.C.) stole the ball
from ACU's Ashley King with 29 seconds left to give TWU the
final possession. Keshun Irving (Karnack, TX/ Tyler J.C.) missed
an open jumper with three ticks left, but Wady grabbed the
offensive board and laid in the winning basket as time expired.
The
Pioneers finished the game hitting 31 of 61 field goal attempts
(50.8%), eight of 13 from beyond the arc (61.5%) and
13 of 20 (65%) from the stripe. TWU's three other three players
who recorded double figures in scoring were Lewis with
14, Wady with 13 points and Lyons with 10. Jessica
Springer (Kirbyville, TX/Blinn College) brought down
a team-high 12 boards to go along with five points and five
assists. Melanie Carter of Abilene Christian recorded a game-high
37 points and 14 rebounds to lead both squads.
Next
up, the Pioneers continue their road trip as they face No.
10 Angelo State University on Saturday, March 1 at 6
p.m. for the regular season finale of both schools. TWU needs
to beat ASU or have Midwestern State beat Abilene Christian
to earn their first trip to the Lone Star Conference tournament
since the 1995-96 season.
--www.twuathletics.com--
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