Laredo - The Texas A&M-Kingsville women's basketball team avenged a last-second loss to Texas A&M - International with a dominant, 69-52, win over the Dustdevils in Laredo on Saturday.
A crushing win in the rebound battle and a suffocating defense that held the home team to under 30% shooting from the field fueled TAMUK to the first road win of its season. Three Javelians scored in double figures, led by redshirt junior forward
Kaylee Howell, who set a new single-game scoring career high for the third straight game with 19 points on 8-of-13 shooting, and added six rebounds and an assist."
"Kaylee is extremely coachable and comes in to watch film and ask questions," Head Coach
Michael Madrid said. "She continues to improve everyday and, more importantly, makes her teammates better daily."
Kingsville has now won three of its last five games, with all three of the team's wins coming on this side of the calendar turn. It had won the team rebound battle in three of its last four games entering Saturday's matchup, in which it pulled in 48 boards to TAMIU's 27. Redshirt junior guard Kacyee Groves led TAMUK in that department with a career-high 16 as she put together her second straight double-double to go along with four assists and a pair of steals. Right alongside her was sophomore forward
Thalia Daniels, who notched single-game career highs in both scoring and rebounding on her way to a 13-point, 12-rebound double-double, the first of her career.
"Extremely proud of our team," Madrid said. "Worked hard the last two days and got better."
The road team began the game strong, taking an early 11-3 lead into the mid-quarter media timeout before TAMIU settled into the game and tied the game heading into the second quarter. The Javelinas exploded into the second frame, going up by as many as 12 multiple times as they imposed their will defensively. The team grabbed six offensive rebounds, forced four timeouts, and held the Dustdevils to just 3-of-14 shooting in the quarter, as it took a nine point advantage into the break.
Though TAMIU got hot in the second half, scoring 20 in the third quarter, TAMUK kept pace with their hosts the whole way, and ran away with the game late. As a team, Kingsville shot 14-of-26 (54%), and got 15 of Howell's 19, in the second half, as its lead never dropped to single digits through the final five minutes of the game.
Freshman guard Jadeyn Perez added nine points and a career-high five assists, and freshman forward
Justine Aguilar returned to the lineup for the first time in 2026 and scored six points in seven minutes.
"We went 1-0 today and that was our focus," Madrid said. "We will enjoy it for a little and start to think about Angelo tomorrow."
The team has another home-and-home on the docket next week, as it will travel to San Angelo to take on the Rambelles on Wednesday night before returning to the SPEC for Military Day on Saturday to again face Angelo State.
