Kingsville - Coming off of a brutal road schedule to start its season, the Texas A&M - Kingsville women's basketball team will play its home opener on Sunday at 1 p.m. against West Texas A&M.

The team has started 5-4 overall and 1-2 in its initial Lone Star Conference Game - all nine of its matchups so far this year have been either road games or played on neutral sites. That will end on Sunday, however, when Kingsville takes on the 8-2 Lady Buffs.

Head Coach Michael Madrid said that, in order to beat the Buffs, "we need to continue to play sound basketball on both ends of the floor, be patient offensively and concentrate on the defensive end."

Though the Javelinas have lost two games in a row - both Lone Star contests - and dropped three of their last four contests, the team unlocked its offense in a major way in a close loss to UT - Permian Basin last Saturday. After three straight games without topping 53 points offensively, the team unleashed its highest scoring output the year, as it shot north of 50% from the field and scored a season-high 79 points. 

Forwards, senior Janessa Payne and junior Shelby Ray, led the way in the scoring department, as Payne dropped a team-high 23 points and Ray added 14 - they combined to miss just five shots. The team also collected 18 assists, with four different players each having three or more individually. For one of the players with four dimes, senior guard Abby Bala, the performance only added to what has been a stellar season so far. Bala leads the conference, and is top 20 in the country, in assist-to-turnover ratio. She is also sixth in the conference in assists per game.

She's not the only Javelina having an LSC-topping start to their year. Payne shoots a blistering 47.9% from beyond the arc, good for the best mark in the conference and the 14th-best in the nation. 

"They are both very experienced players that understand the game," Madrid said. "It's fun to watch them this final year and we will do our very best to extend the season as long as possible for all our seniors."

Total as team, the Javelinas have been shooting 33.5% from three (fifth in the LSC) and 43.3% from the field (third in the LSC). The team's growing offense joins a solid team defense, which has been the strength of the team from day one. TAMUK holds opponents to 56.2 points per game, the fifth-fewest in the conference, and sends opponents to the free-throw line at the second-lowest rate in the LSC. 

The team will have its work cut out for it against a Lady Buffs squad that will carry a four-game winning streak into the SPEC Sunday afternoon. WT is 2-1 in conference play, with both of its wins coming in its most recent games - home beatdowns of Cameron and Oklahoma Christian. The team has largely made its money on the offensive end, scoring the second-most points per game in the LSC with 73.7 per contest. They are second in the conference in another team stat as well, though it falls on the defensive end of the floor. Opponents have shot just 23.3% from three when facing West Texas' perimeter defense. 

Individually, junior guard Randi Harding has been excellent for WT, making an impact all over the court. In the conference, Harding ranks 12th in scoring (13.1), fourth in field goal percentage (52.2), seventh in assists (3.2), and sixth in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.6). She is coming off of a 20-point performance where she shot 8-of-12 from the floor, grabbed four rebounds, handed our four assists, and grabbed two steals in a win over Oklahoma Christian.

The game will start a bit of a delayed weekend schedule for TAMUK, as its second game of the week will - as usual - come two days after its first, but - unlike usual - will be played on Tuesday at 1pm, at which point the Javelinas will host Eastern New Mexico in their final regular season game before break.