STEPHENVILLE, Texas – The Texas A&M-Kingsville women's basketball team(1-0) opened the 2015-16 season with a 60-57 victory over Texas A&M International (0-1) in the first game of the TexAnn Tip-Off Classic in Wisdom Gym Friday afternoon. With the win, head coach
Wade Scott earned his first career victory at the helm of the Javelinas and the team snapped the second longest active winless streak in Division II at 27 games.
The last time the Blue and Gold came away victorious was on Mar. 1, 2014 against Angelo State at home by the score of 83-67.
Pacing TAMUK with 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting off the bench was
Joslyn Smith. Kaylin Roher added nine points, four rebounds and tied
Kaylee Kana for the team-high in steals with two.
Lily Hospers grabbed a team best seven rebounds and blocked the lone shot of the game for the Javelinas.
The Dustdevils were led by Jessica Prieto's 26 points. Both Keiona Mathews and Ashley Perry finished with 10 points each. Mathews contributed eight rebounds, six assists and three steals as well.
TaSheena Moore started the scoring off with a jumper at the 8:33 mark of the first quarter. A fastbreak layup by Roher and a free throw apiece from
Jamesha Wade and Kana put TAMUK in front 6-0 after the first three minutes.
The Javelinas never trailed in the game, leading for 37:21 of the 40 minutes. Their largest lead was 13 (31-18) following an 11-0 run capped off by a jumper from
Kyra Bauer.
In the third, TAMIU managed to tie the game twice with the last being 37-37 after a layup from Mathews. The Blue and Gold answered back with eight straight points, half of which came from Wade.
Both teams struggled to find an offensive rhythm in the fourth period but the Dustdevils managed to outscore TAMUK by three points to cut the Javelinas' lead to 57-55 with 1:08 remaining in the game. Smith ended the Blue and Gold's four-minute scoring drought on a layup with 13 seconds showing on the clock.
Two free throws seven seconds later from Mathews made it a two-point contest again. Roher then went to the line and sunk 1-of-2 charity stripe attempts for the final point of the contest.
Saturday sees the Blue and Gold conclude the tournament with a 12 p.m. tipoff against Concordia University out of Irvine, California.
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