Oklahoma City, OK - The Texas A&M - Kingsville women's basketball team's defense flexed its muscles once again, helping the Javelinas beat the Oklahoma Christian Eagles, 57-52, for their fourth straight Lone Star Conference win.
This marks the second time this season that TAMUK has posted a four-game win streak, with both of them coming in the 2025 portion of the team's schedule. It is the second time since '09-10 that Kingsville has multiple four-game win streaks in the same season. The win pushed the Javelinas to 14-8 overall and 10-6 in LSC play.
"Always hard to win on the road in conference so we will take it," Head Coach
Michael Madrid said. "We weren't very sharp on both ends of the floor tonight. We need to clean up a lot leading to our next game. However, we are excited about going 1-0 today."
Senior guard
Abby Bala helped close the game out with two separate perfect triple to the charity stripe in the final 90 seconds of the game. In fact, she missed just one of her eight free-throw attempts on the night and finished with a team-high 15 points and a game-high 5 assists. Those weren't the only categories she led in, however, as she also posted five rebounds, including a key offensive board late, and a career-high six steals.
"Abby is playing with a lot of confidence and I love it," Madrid said. "She is such a spark plug and impacts the game in so many ways. I told her and the other seniors last night that this was their last trip to Edmond so make it special. She certainly did that."
Redshirt sophomore forward
Kaycee Groves joined Bala in double figures with 10 points and posted a team-high seven rebounds. She also joined Bala in the forcing-turnovers department as she was, including Bala, one of five different Javelinas with a steal in the game. In total, Kingsville forced 21 Lady Eagle turnovers while also holding them below 40% shooting from the field.
As has been the norm this season, the Javelinas played team basketball on both ends of the floor. While the defensive end of the floor was impressive, the offense proved equally so, with four Javelinas scoring seven or more points - senior forward
Veyda Lake's nine on 4-of-6 shooting were huge for TAMUK in the second frame and junior forward Shelby's Ray's seven off the bench were key for Kingsville in the second half.
While the game began evenly matched, with OC answering every Kingsville bucket with one of its own, the Lake-led run in the second helped the team start to pull away. That separation only increased in the third, as TAMUK leaned on its defense once again, this time to the tune of seven third-quarter Eagle points. Kingsville out-scored their hosts by nine in the third and entered the final frame with a 14 point lead. The Eagles mounted a late run, hitting desperation threes and trimming their visitor's lead late, but clutch free-throws from Bala and crucial defensive stops gave Kingsville the win.
"Everyone wants to be playing their best in February," Madrid said. "It's a separation month in so many respects. We just need to focus on the daily things that make us better. Eyes forward, blinder on mentality."
The Javelinas will hit the hardwood again on Saturday when the team will attempt to sweep the season series against Cameron at 1 p.m..
