FORT SMITH, Arkansas- The Texas A&M-Kingsville women's basketball team faced off Thursday in Fort Smith, Arkansas where they fell short late to the UAFS Lions 55-54.
"Hard to win games on the road in conference." said coach
Michael Madrid. " We had a great opportunity at the end despite how bad we played offensively. We had plenty of opportunities shooting the ball. Missed a lot of free throws and had entirely too many turnovers. Credit to Fort Smith and their execution. I thought we got extremely complacent after the first quarter. We will regroup and prep for our next opportunity".
Junior
Jayde Tschritter was the player of the game helping her offense with 10 points 2 rebounds and an assist, while also having help off the bench from Junior
Abby Bala who had 9 points and 4 rebounds on the evening. Leading the way in rebounds on the evening with 9 was Sophomore
Shelby Ray who also was able to put together 7 points offensively.
TAMUK kept it close in terms of field goal percentage on the evening as they ended the night with a FG% of 37.0% as opposed to the Lions 38.9%. The Javelinas outshot their opponent from three 29.2% to 22.2% and outrebounded them 40-34, however the biggest difference on the night was the Free Throw Percentage. The Lions outshot the Javelinas 90.0% to 38.9% from the charity stripe.
The Game would start off fast for the Javelinas once again this week as
Veyda Lake would grab the first points of the game only a minute and some change into the game leaving 8:39 left. The Lions would respond with a layup of their own, but
Janessa Payne would sink a three putting the Javelinas up 5-2 with 6:37 left to go in the first. UAFS would follow with a jumper closing the gap to one, which would be blown wide open by a 11-2 Javelina run compliments of a layup by
Bella Sipowicz and the deep ball by
Jayde Tschritter and
Abby Bala, putting it at 16-6 with 3:03 left in the quarter.
Aina Maynou would join the three-point barrage as well putting the lead to 11 19-8 with 58 seconds left in the opening quarter.
Lake ended the first just as she opened it, with a layup, sending the game to the second 21-10.
The second saw a reverse of fortunes from the first, as now it was the Lions who were beginning to get warmed up. They opened the second going on a 9-4 run taking three minutes and 18 seconds of game time to do so putting the score at 25-19 with 6:33 left in the half. Both squads would trade a layup making things 27-21 with 4:11 to go before halftime. No further shots would fall other than free throws from this point on, putting the Javelinas at an advantage going on a 5-1 free throw run the last three minutes and two seconds of play before heading into the half 32-22.
Coming out of the locker room it would be
Lake once again getting the scoring going for the Javelinas as she would trade layups with the Lions making it 34-24 with 8:26 left in the third. An
Ohiaeri free throw and a
Spiowicz layup would be the Last Javelina score before the Lions went on an 8-0 run eventually tying the game at 37 apiece with 2:30 left to go in the quarter.
Maynou would promptly break the tie, however draining a layup with 2:20 to go ensuring the Lions don't grab the lead. A 5-0 run, however, consisting of two free throws and a three with 37 seconds to go in the third would put Fort Smith out front 42-39.
Jayde Tschritter would make it a short-lived lead for the Lions though, as she would hit a well-timed three with 14 seconds left sending things tied at 42 going into the fourth.
The fourth was a battle as the Lions came out and rattled off the first five points of the quarter wasting no time doing so as only a minute would pass and they would be up 47-42. The Javelinas would respond however, going on a 6-0 run featuring a
Rivers free throw,
Ray three, and a
Maynou layup. This putting the Javelinas up 48-47 with 5:47 to go would elicit an equal response from the Lions who put together two buckets of their own taking the lead once again 51-48 and looking to break away with only 2:35 left in the game. After a UAFS layup made things 53-50 with 1:47 to go
Ray would cut the lead to one, paving the way for
Bala to take the late lead 54-53 with roughly a minute of game time left. The Lions would manage to sneak a layup past the defense, giving the Javelinas the ball with under 30 seconds to go. After an offensive rebound and quick timeout, the Javelinas had 11.2 seconds to come up with one final play, which ultimately fell short leading to the Lions squeaking by 55-54.
The Javelinas are back out on the road next time out Saturday January 13
th, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma where they will matchup against the Oklahoma Christian Eagles at the Payne Athletic Center, tip off slated for 1:00 P.M. CST.
Follow the Javelinas all season long by visiting javelinaathletics.com to find links to live stats and streaming information as well as a recap at the end of each contest. To keep up-to-date with Javelina Women's Basketball, follow the program on Facebook /JavelinaWBB or Twitter @Javelina_WBB. Watch your Javelinas live today on the Javelina Sports Network.
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