Kingsville - Coming off of a pair of losses to top-10-ranked opponents, the Texas A&M - Kingsville women's basketball team looks to get back in the win column as it heads on the road for a matchup with Western New Mexico on Thursday at 5:30 p.m..

After the showdown in the Silver City, the Javelinas will travel to Alpine to play Sul Ross St. While WNM has struggled this season, the Mustangs enter Thursday's game fresh off of their first Lone Star Conference win of the season, having taken down the Greyhounds in Eastern New Mexico.

"WNMU is a very scrappy team that plays extremely hard and has a veteran coach so our focus will need to be solid every possession on both ends of the floor," Madrid said.

That scrappiness and effort has shown itself in the stat sheet for the Mustangs as well. This season, they average more combined rebounds, forced turnovers, and blocked shots than the Javelinas. They get to those rebounding numbers largely by committee, with five different players each averaging at least three boards per game. Their forced turns come in a similar fashion, with four different Mustangs averaging more than a steal per game.

Leading the Mustangs' charge has been freshman Alina Martin, who is having a fantastic start to her collegiate career. She leads the team in scoring, averaging 10.6 points per game, and has scored in double figures in six straight games, including a pair of 18-point outings.

Kingsville will seek to shut her and the WNM offense down with the 18th-best scoring defense in the nation. The Javelinas have, on average, held opponents to under 55 points per game this year, and haven't allowed an opponent to score 70 or more since December seventh. The team has also been increasingly efficient on the offensive side of the ball as well, ranking third in the LSC in both field goal and three-point percentage. 


In all aspects of the game, TAMUK has played balanced, team basketball. As a result, the team has stayed near the top of the LSC in both fewest turnovers (third) and assist-to-turnover ratio (fourth) all season. Even with the team's offensive efficiency, no single player sits in the top 20 of the conference in points per game. Junior forward Shelby Ray, however, has climbed into the 10th spot in individual field goal percentage, while senior forward Janessa Payne shoots the third-best percentage from three in the LSC while making the sixth-most per game. 

On Thursday, the Javelinas will put a four-game win streak in Silver City on the line, and attempt to avenge the team's two-point home loss to the Mustangs from last season.

"Every game in this conference is tough and this weekend will be no different," Head Coach Michael Madrid said. "We focus on who we are and work to play to the best of our ability. We are excited to play this weekend."