Kingsville - A season-best night from senior forward Vedya Lake and stellar defense helped the Texas A&M - Kingsville women's basketball team take down St. Mary's, 57-48, for its third straight win.
After dropping three in a row and falling to .500 in conference play a few weeks ago, TAMUK has now won three straight, improving to 9-6 in Lone Star Conference play and moving up to sixth in the conference standings with seven games left in the season. Kingsville's defense dominated, holding the Rattlers to 35.3% shooting from the field and forcing them into 18.
"Extremely proud of our team and their composure down the stretch," Head Coach
Michael Madrid said. "It was an ugly game in many respects but we had a late run that ultimately propelled us to the victory."
Leading the team - and tying the game - in scoring was Lake, who dropped a season-high 20 points in just 24 minutes while missing just one of her nine shot attempts.
"Veyda was so efficient today with her opportunities," Madrid said. "She shoots a tremendous percentage from the floor and has such a soft finish. Our guards did a good job of finding her when her defender stepped over to help."
With Lake leading the charge, the whole team was efficient offensively, shooting 50% from the field. Four different Javelinas finished the game with multiple assists led by senior guard
Abby Bala who had game-high four. Bala also added seven points and was also one of four different players for TAMUK with a steal. Junior guard
Aina Maynou (3) and redshirt forward
Kaycee Groves (2) had multiple steals, for Kingsville - Groves' 11th multiple steal game of the season.
The Javelinas started red hot, notching the game's first six points and outscoring the Rattlers 18-10 in the first quarter. Kingsville scored 18 again in the third, a frame where they locked down defensively, holding St. Mary's to just seven points in the quarter. An 11-2 run, which saw four different Javelinas, Maynou, Lake, Bala and freshman guard
Addisyn Parker score, out of the halftime locker room helped TAMUK's effort in that frame.
The Rattlers, who entered the matchup just a half game back from Kingsville in the LSC standings, mounted a comeback attempt late in the ballgame, trimming their deficit down to six with under three minutes to play. The defense tightened up in a big way for TAMUK, however, as the Javelinas allowed just two field goals in the final five minutes of the game, and turned in scores from Maynou, Groves, Lake, and Bala to close out the hard-earned win.
"We need to continue to improve on both ends in so many aspects but we are working and playing well together," Madrid said.
Kingsville will not head on the road for four straight games away from the SPEC, starting with one each on Thursday and Saturday against Oklahoma Christian and Cameron respectively.
