Kingsville - Despite missing its leading scorer, the Texas A&M - Kingsville women's basketball team beat Oklahoma Christian at home, 63-42 to stay a perfect 4-0 in 2025 and grab its fifth win in its last six games.

Though junior forward Shelby Ray missed the game, the Javelinas leaned on their patented defense, holding OC to 30.2% from the field and 9.1% from three while forcing 18 turnovers from the Eagles. They now sit at 10-5 overall and hold a 6-3 record in Lone Star Conference play. 

"I'm so proud of this group," Head Coach Michael Madrid said. "They're so fun to coach and they're so fun to be around. I just thought this was an overall, team effort. When you look at the stats, everyone stepped up."

Three different Javelinas scored double figures for TAMUK, led by senior forward Janessa Payne, who shot 4-of-7 from three, and added five rebounds and two assists. She entered the day shooting the 12th-best percentage from distance in the nation. Redshirt sophomore Kaycee Groves added 11 points, four boards, two assists, and collected a career-high five steals. She has now extended her streak of games with multiple steals to seven, over the course of which she has averaged 2.86 per contest. Freshman Jordyn Hernandez missed just one shot all day, shooting 4-of-5 from the floor and scoring 11 points in just 18 minutes.

"It's just a part of our culture, who we are, the type of players that we recruit," Madrid said. "And, again, you never know when it's your opportunity. That's one thing we talked about, if somebody goes down, somebody gets hurt, it's your opportunity to step up and make big players for your team - a lot of players did that today."

In total, five Kingsville players scored at least eight and five grabbed at least four rebounds. Alongside Payne, senior guard Abby Bala led the team with five and, despite standing at just 5 '7, four of those boards came on the offensive end.

Kingsville came out of the gate red hot, as the Javelinas made nine of their first 12 field goal attempts, including all four of their first-quarter threes. The counterpunch to their great early offense was play that was just as good on the other end - they held their visitors from Oklahoma Christian to just 6-of-22 shooting in the first half. That defense, and the massive margin their offense had created, allowed TAMUK to weather a third-quarter storm where they scored just six points and secure the win. 

"We've just got to learn to continue to move our feet, play together, trust our rotations are going to be there," Madrid said. "But, they're just fun to be around. They love each other, which is the most important part, they really defend for each other."

Kingsville will take its four-game win streak into a pair of top-15 matchups next weekend. The Javelinas will face off first against undefeated, No.2-ranked Texas Woman's on Thursday at 5:30 p.m., and then take on No.14 UT-Tyler on Saturday at 1 p.m..
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