KINGSVILLE, Texas – Fueled by a career day from junior Brynae Thompson (Houston, Texas) the Texas A&M-Kingsville women's basketball program held on to a late one-possession lead over Texas Woman's on Saturday at the Steinke Physical Education Center and came away with the first Lone Star Conference win of the 2018-19 season at 72-70.

"It was no doubt peaks and valleys today," said head coach Wade Scott. "We started out pretty good before we let them back in it with a run while we went back-and-forth for a little bit.

"I have to give the kids the credit. They battled, stuck with it and hung in there with each other, and in the end we had some people step up and make some really big plays."

The Javelinas (4-7, 1-3 LSC) battled back from a halftime deficit to take the decision in the conference matchup over the Pioneers (5-7, 2-2 LSC), with Thompson leading the charge with 28 points on a 10-for-18 performance.

The Blue and Gold opened the first quarter with a 9-3 run capped by a mid-range jumper from Thompson at the 4:26 mark. TAMUK put away the first five points of the contest courtesy of a trey from junior Rachel Tapps (Cypress, Texas) and a pair of free throws from classmate Danielle Meador (Corpus Christi, Texas) with 8:22 showing.

The Pioneers returned the favor through the remainder of the opening frame after connecting for 22 of the final 24 points to take a 25-11 advantage going into the second.

The Blue and Gold trimmed the deficit to five after Meador made a driving layup with 7:26 left in the second quarter, setting the line score at 25-20 in the process. Tapps put the score within one possession after sinking a shot from the charity stripe before she drained one from long range at 5:54 to show 25-24 on the scoreboard.

TWU piled on a 10-1 run from that point for a 35-25 cushion at 2:17 before the Javelinas added the final four points of the half to go into the locker rooms down 35-29.

TAMUK kept digging into the lead to start the third before a layup from Thompson preceded a trey from Meador and a layup from Tapps and put the Javelinas ahead at 43-42 with 5:13 remaining in the stanza.

The two sides traded baskets from there, swapping the lead on three different occasions before TAMUK went ahead at the 2:39 mark with back-to-back free throws from Thompson for a 49-48 advantage. Senior Kristina Kana (Mont Belvieu, Texas) added a pair of points from the stripe seconds later before Thompson closed the frame with a layup and another pair of shots from the line for a 55-50 score favoring the hosts heading into the fourth.

The Javelinas kept the Pioneers at arms' length through the majority of the fourth before the visitors closed the gap to one at 2:43 with a driving layup from Bri'anna Gray to set the score at 64-63. TWU eventually took the lead with under a minute to go as a layup from Macy Wilkerson put the Blue and Gold on the backend of a 67-66 score with 54 seconds on the clock.

Senior transfer Cloe Lane (Kansas City, Mo.) took matters into her own hands with a clutch triple with 44 seconds left, while the Pioneers knotted the score at 69-69 only 12 seconds later behind a jumper from KJ Stastny.

Thompson became the hero the Javelinas needed as she took the inbound down the length of the floor and drew the and-one with 10 seconds left. She drained the ensuing free throw for a 72-69 Blue and Gold lead before the last-second desperation play from TWU fell short en route to the 72-70 final.

Thompson's career-best of 28 points came on the heels of a 10-for-18 shooting performance as she added four rebounds, one assist and one steal.  Meador ended up with 19 points on a 5-for-11 clip, making all six of her free throws, while she added seven rebounds, two steals and one assist.

Tapps rounded out the trio with 14 points on a 5-for-11 mark and added four rebounds and four assists in the process.

The Javelinas will remain home next week to take on No. 3 West Texas A&M on Thursday, January 10, with tipoff set for 5:30 p.m. CT in the SPEC.

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

######