Silver City, NM - The Texas A&M - Kingsville women's basketball team lost a road battle with the Western New Mexico Mustangs, 59-53, Thursday night.
In a back-and-forth defensive game, WNM scored 20 points in the fourth quarter, doing just enough to secure its second straight win. The Javelinas are now 10-8 overall and 6-6 in Lone Star Conference play.
"We played well for 10 minutes then completely fell apart," Head Coach
Michael Madrid said. "Went away from everything we do on a daily basis. We got extremely sloppy with the ball in the second quarter and offensively our efficiency was very poor."
The game saw 11 different lead changes, including the Mustangs taking their first one of the fourth with just over three minutes left. Despite Kingsville's best efforts, including a late clutch triple from senior forward
Janessa Payne, that was the final lead change of the game.
"We were up 48-42 in the fourth and we didn't score on 10 straight possessions," Madrid said. "That's definitely not how you finish games."
Payne led the Javelinas in scoring with 13 on three made threes. She was one of six different players for TAMUK with at least six points. Kingsville's work on the glass was similarly shared, with five different players grabbing at least three boards, led by guards
Aina Maynou and
Abby Bala as well as forward
Kaycee Groves, who each had five rebounds.
The Javelinas were red hot to start the game, outscoring the Mustangs 19-7 in the first frame. They held their hosts to 3-of-12 shooting in those ten minutes. The second quarter saw a role reversal, however, as WNM scored 22 in the frame to take a one-point halftime lead. The two quarters after halftime were lopsided as well, with Kingsville holding the Mustangs to 10 points in the third, before being held to 11 in the final frame. Overall, TAMUK held its foes to 37.5% from the floor and forced 19 turnovers, but allowed them to shoot 41.7% from distance.
"I clearly didn't prepare us to win tonight," Madrid said. "Something I need to improve upon."
Kingsville's road trip will continue on Saturday when they head to Sul Ross St. for another LSC matchup, with the game set to tip off at 1 p.m..
