Alpine - The Texas A&M-Kingsville women's basketball team fought a back-and-forth battle with the Sul Ross St. Lobos on Saturday, and gave up a late three and came up just short of picking up a road Lone Star Conference win, losing 62-58.
The team posted more rebounds and assists than the Lobos and shot a better percentage from the field, but were unable to come up with a key stop late. The loss comes at the tail end of the longest road trip of the Javelinas' conference season, which had started with a 10-point win over the Western New Mexico Mustangs on Thursday night.Â
Freshman guard
Jade Perez led the team with 17 points on five made threes, marking the sixth time that she has scored in double figures in LSC play and the third time in a row. Behind her, redshirt junior guard
Kaycee Groves, sophomore guard
Addisyn Parker, and freshman forward
Justine Aguilar each had eight points. Groves added five rebounds, five steals, and four assists, Parker chipped in six rebounds, a team-high six assists, and three steals, and Aguilar added two points and an assist in her 11 minutes off the bench.
The team started the game red hot, scoring 23 points in the first quarter behind five made threes, and took an 11-point lead into the second quarter. That frame, however, began the shooting woes for Kingsville, who shot a combined 6-of-23 across the second and third quarters. In spite of that, TAMUK's defense kept it in the game, as the team held the Lobos to just 7-of-21 shooting from the field in that same time frame.Â
Sul Ross was able to break through Kingsville's pressure late in the third quarter, slimming its deficit to just two points heading into the final frame. It didn't take long for the Javelinas to respond, as their offense rose to meet the Lobos' challenge. SRS took its first lead of the game with just under three minutes to play, the first of seven different lead changes that came in those waning moments, including one induced by a step-through layup from Aguilar that gave Kingsville the lead with 23 seconds remaining. A made triple from the Lobos with under 10 seconds left, however, sealed the game.
The Javelinas will be back at home this weekend with a pair of LSC games, first they will take on St. Edward's on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. on Pack the House night, before they turn around to face St. Mary's at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday (Play4Kay).
