Salt Lake City, Utah - In its second game in as many days against the Westminster Griffins, the Kingsville women's basketball team used an explosive second quarter and lights-out shooting from senior
Janessa Payne to ground the Griffins 71-47 and start the year 2-0.
Kingsville held Westminster to just eight points in the second frame and took a 39-19 lead into the halftime locker room. Three different Javelinas scored at least 11 while the team allowed no singular Griffin to score more than 11.
"We defended better today overall as a team," Head Coach
Michael Madrid said, "We lost individual intensity and gave up some threes which is a lack of concentration. We will continue to work on that aspect defensively."Â
Payne dropped a game-high 20 points on six made threes, shooting a blazing 6-of-10 from behind the arc. She has not hit nine total threes across the season, as many as triple the rest of the team combined.
"Janessa shot very confident today and we found her," Madrid said. "Proud of our group for continuing to feed the hot hand."Â
The game began as a back-and-forth affair, with Kingsville taking a three point lead into the second quarter. That, however, is where the game quickly became a blowout. After the griffins tied it up with a triple two minutes into the frame, the Javelinas responded with a 25-5 run that put the game away.
Four different TAMUK players scored on the run, led by junior
Aina Maynou, who scored 11 of the team's 25. Payne hit a pair of triples during the run.
From there, the Javelinas held serve in the second half, outsourcing Westminster by three after halftime and closing out the opening weekend of their season with a pair of wins.
Kingsville will be back in action next weekend for two more road games, when they head to Colorado to take on Colorado St. - Pueblo on Friday, and Colorado Christian on Saturday.
"We learned a little more about our team this weekend," Madrid said. "We will work on our weaknesses and start prepping for a tough Colorado swing next weekend."
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