Salt Lake City, Utah - With 3.3 seconds left to play, senior guard Abby Bala finished through contact to give the Kingsville women's basketball team a 66-63 season-opening win on the road against the Westminster Griffins.

After trailing by as many as 14 points midway through the third quarter, TAMUK used a 12-2 run late in the third and a 13-0 run at the end of the game to take a late lead. The team then closed out the win with a frontcourt, sideline inbound from junior Aina Maynou to Bala, who caught the ball on the move and finished at the rim to break a 63-63 tie and give Kingsville the win.

"We struggled offensively for a majority of the game and were fortunate to win," Head Coach Michael Madrid said. "Players stepped up in crucial moments and made big shots. I love our balance."

Though the team shot just 42% from the field, they turned the ball over just eight times while forcing 20 from the Griffins, which turned into 15 points. Two newcomers to the roster led the team in scoring - freshman Logan Borchardt, who had a team-high 13 points, and junior transfer Isabella Paradowski, who had 12 on 5-of-6 shooting. Paradowski did her damage in just 17 minutes and added two rebounds, an assist, and a steal. She scored eight of her 12 in the second half and helped fuel the team's comeback.

After a back-and-forth first half, the Javelina scored just two points in the opening five minutes of the second half, allowing the Griffins to open up a 14-point lead. That, however, is when Kingsville caught fire. Bala and freshman Jordyn Hernandez each knocked in a triple on back-to-back plays, followed by four straight points from Paradowski and an offensive rebound stick-back from junior Alyssa O'Malley pulled the Javelinas within four in the waning seconds of the third quarter.

"We made no major adjustments other than to settle down and play our brand of basketball," Madrid said. "Our shot selection wasn't great at times so we wanted to address that and make sure the team knew what shots we wanted."

A 13-0 run in the fourth quarter gave TAMUK a seven point lead with under 90 seconds to play in the ball game - Borchardt scored or assisted on ten of the points on that run. She finished with a game-high four steals along with three assists and a rebound. 

Late buckets from Westminster, however, knotted-up the game with 3.3 seconds to play. From there, a beautifully drawn-up play worked to perfection and Bala converted an old-fashioned three-point-play to give Kingsville its first win of the season. 

"Tremendous effort by our team today," Madrid said. "We were able to regain our composure and get some stops as well as go on a run in the fourth. Westminster shot lights out so we have to guard better tomorrow but overall this was a total team effort."

The team will be back in action with the exact same matchup and the exact same tip-off time - 1 p.m. central. The game will be streamed for free here.
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