Kingsville – The Texas A&M-Kingsville Javelinas hung tough with the nationally ranked West Texas A&M Lady Buffs all night, but couldn’t overcome them, falling 88-71 at Kleberg Bank Court. Click here for stats.
LaKeisha Jones led the Javelinas with 15 points, Ali Scott came off the bench to add 14 and Felicia Soza (Beeville) had 10.
The loss dropped the Javelinas to 5-13 overall and 1-4 in the Lone Star Conference South Division. The 14th ranked Lady Buffs won their ninth straight and 15th in their last 16 games to improve to 15-3 overall and 5-0 in league play.
“We played hard, we just weren’t smart with the ball and didn’t execute the game plan the way we needed to,” said Javelina head coach Scott Hyland. “They shot the ball really well from three and didn’t miss any free throws. We executed some things well. We saw some improvement in some areas. We handled the press better in the second half and executed our offense well early on. Hitting 3-point shots usually isn’t a big part of their game, we made it big part and they hit the shots. That’s a credit to them.”
The Javelinas shot 58 percent from the floor in the first half, but still trailed 48-35 at the half.
The A&M-Kingsville offense couldn’t keep up the pace in the second half, hitting just 39 percent of its shots over the final 20 minutes.
Meanwhile West Texas A&M shot an even 50 percent in each half and made 10 of 26 3-point shots against the Javelina zone and added 22 free throws in 28 attempts.
The Javelinas hit just 5 of 21 3-point shots and 16 of 26 free throws.
A&M-Kingsville hosts Abilene Christian Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m.
