ABILENE, TEXAS – The Texas A&M-Kingsville women’s basketball team, in great playoff position a few weeks ago, was handed their fifth loss in six games on Tuesday night when they dropped a 78-70 decision at Lone Star Conference South Division rival Abilene Christian.  (box score)

The story of the game was almost a carbon copy of the first meeting between the Javelinas (13-10, 3-5) and Wildcats (15-7, 6-1).  The Wildcats jumped out to a big halftime lead and the Hoggies fought back in the second half, but ran out of time.

In the first half, the Javelinas struggled to make a basket shooting just 22.6 percent while the Wildcats got off to a great start streaking to a 13-1 lead in the first four minutes of the game.  Late in the first half, the Javelinas pulled to within 10 points on a Dyana Bullinger (Spring/Klein HS) three-pointer.  Unfortunately, the Wildcats had one more burst in them as they closed the half on a 7-0 run that included a Jamie Meyer three-pointer with four seconds remaining.

Meyer finished the half with 12 points while making 3-of-3 three-point attempts.  She kep firing away in the second half and finished with a game high 32 points on 10-of-16 shooting from the floor and an 8-for-9 performance at the foul line.

In the second half, the Javelinas shot 68.0 percent from the field and made 6-of-8 three-point attempts.  Felicia Soza (Beeville/Jones HS) went 5-for-5 from the field in the half and scored 15 of her team high 20 points.  Tammi Mitchell (Tyler/John Tyler HS) and Ursula Hill (Cypress/Cy-Fair HS) combined to score 15 points off the bench in the second half.  Late in the half, the Hoggies pulled to within five points with 18 seconds remaining, but the Wildcats made six straight free throws in the final 17 seconds of the game.

The Javelinas finished the game shooting 42.9 percent from the field, made 8-of-20 three-pointers and were 14-of-21 at the foul line.  LaKeisha Jones (Winnsboro, LA/Crowville HS) was the only Hoggie other than Soza to score in double figures as she finished with 10 points.  Mitchell finished with eight points and five rebounds while Hill added nine points and three steals.  Kayla Naylor (Corpus Christi/Calallen HS) had eight points, six rebounds and four assists.  The Javs pulled down one more rebound than the Wildcats, but committed five more turnovers.

The Wildcats shot 40.6 percent from the field, made 4-of-15 three-pointers and were 18-of-24 from the foul line.  Meyer led the team with 32 points and six rebounds.  Jody Meyer added 12 points.  Audrey Maxwell-Lively pulled down 12 rebounds and had three blocks.  Kat Kundmueller dished out nine assists while committing just one turnover.

The Javelinas are back in action on February 18 against Eastern New Mexico at 6 o’clock in the Steinke Center.
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