KINGSVILLE, Texas – Juniors Brynae Thompson (Houston, Texas) and Danielle Meador (Corpus Christi, Texas) teamed up with senior Cloe Lane (Kansas City, Mo.) for 55 points on Tuesday at the Gil E. Steinke Physical Education Center to lead the Texas A&M-Kingsville women's basketball program past Texas A&M International at 80-69 to start off the holidays.

"You have to give a lot of credit to TAMIU," said head coach Wade Scott, "They've been on the road for the past three days and they came in here and really battled. Their coach had a really good game plan and it caught us by surprise.

"I'm proud of our team, I thought they showed a lot of pride and I thought it was a great team effort."

The Javelinas (2-2) opened the game with a trey from Lane before sophomore Nicole Hutchins (Berowra, Australia) added a contested layup in the paint, while the Dustdevils (0-5) were quick to match with a three-ball from Alliyah Bryant and a fastbreak layup from Tantashea Giger to even the count at 8:31.

The teams traded buckets until the score showed 8-7 before the Javelinas connected for 10-straight points over the course of five minutes in the first quarter as Thompson capped off the run with a shot from beyond the arc.

TAMIU kept the score close but TAMUK held a five-point edge at 18-13 going into the second stanza.

The Javelinas built up the cushion to 16 by the 3:37 mark of the second with Thompson making a pair of shots from the charity stripe to give the hosts a 40-24 lead, eventually cruising to a 44-34 advantage going into the locker rooms.

TAMUK shot 55.6% from the field in the half, making 15 shots out of 27 attempts, including a 6-for-12 mark from long range. TAMIU ended up with a clip of 46.2%, but made only one three-pointer in the first 20 minutes of play.

Both sides traded punches throughout the third quarter as the Dustdevils whittled the deficit down to four at 53-49 with 1:27 showing on the clock, but the Javelinas scored eight of the next 10 points for a double-digit lead going into the fourth at 61-51, with Thompson providing the exclamation point once again with a trey in the closing seconds.

TAMIU trimmed TAMUK's lead to seven midway through the final quarter, but the Javelinas endured the rally and built the advantage back to double digits and closed out the game at 80-69.

Thompson finished with 24 points on 9-for-16 shooting from the floor, including a perfect 3-for-3 mark from long range, coupled with seven rebounds and three steals.

Meador added 19 points on a 7-for-12 mark, making all five of her free throws, along with four boards, one assist and one pickpocket.

Lane rounded out the trio with 12 points on 4-for-10 in the field, matching Thompson with three treys and seven boards, and added two assists and one block.

The Javelinas got 16 bench points in the contest, with sophomore Ravae Payne (Pearland, Texas) spearheading the effort with nine on 3-for-5 from the floor along with five dimes.

TAMUK will head out on the road this weekend with a contest against St. Edward's on Saturday, November 24, in Austin, Texas. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. CT.

To keep up-to-date with Javelina Women's Basketball, follow the program on Facebook /JavelinaWBB or on Twitter @TAMUKwbb

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