Canyon – The Texas A&M-Kingsville women’s basketball team battled back from a 19-point second half deficit to cut the lead to six with less than seven and a half minutes left to go, but went scoreless over the final 6:19 in falling 78-51 at #9 West Texas A&M.
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   The loss dropped the Javelinas to 8-14 overall and 3-6 in the Lone Star Conference South Division.  West Texas A&M won their seventh consecutive game, improved to 10-0 at home, 20-3 overall and 9-0 in league play.

   Junior Lana Toki led the Javelinas with 18 points and eight rebounds while Ali Scott, reinserted into the starting lineup for the first time in three weeks, scored 11 points and grabbed five rebounds.

   Texas A&M-Kingsville was hurt by their own mistakes, turning the ball over 33 times.

   The Javelinas out-rebounded the Lady Buffs 36-30 with 14 of their boards coming on the offensive end.

   The Javelinas trailed 35-25 at the half, but the Lady Buffs outscored A&M-Kingsville 17-8 in the first six and a half minutes of the second half to grab a 52-33 advantage.

   But the Javelinas rallied, putting together a 10-0 run during a two-minute span to cut the lead to 55-49 with 7:13 left in the contest.

   Toki scored five of the Javelinas’ 10 points during that stretch.

   A lay-up by Toki with 6:19 left in the game cut the Lady Buff lead to 60-51, but the Javelinas would not score again as West Texas A&M ended the game on an 18-0 run.

   "We fought back, we attacked the basket and we were aggressive, but they did a great job defensively against us," said Javelina head coach Dina Kangas.  "We had a hard time running our offense.  They picked up the pressure and we didn’t handle it.  We out-rebounded them, but we couldn’t hit any shots down the stretch.  That makes it pretty tough.  We’ve got to bounce back and get a split out of this trip."

   The Javelinas face Eastern New Mexico in Portales Saturday.