Kingsville - Led by a career-high 25 points from redshirt junior guard
Kaycee Groves, the Texas A&M-Kingsville women's basketball team pulled away late and survived a comeback attempt from the St. Edward's Hilltoppers, getting a Lone Star Conference win, 58-53.
Groves was red hot from the tip, shooting 9-of-13 from the field and 5-of-6 from three on her way to the highest single-game scoring total posted by a Javelina since February of 2023. Included in her big night was 13 fourth-quarter points, which helped fuel a 9-2 run as TAMUK pulled away in the final frame.
"That was just a fun Lone Star Conference game, I thought," Head Coach
Michael Madrid said. "It was super physical, the officials let us play a little bit, we were able to get a run and get a rhythm and make some shots, then we got a little goofy there for a second. Just good to see us play well, play well at home in front of the home crowd, just something to build on and we'll get ready for practice tomorrow and go there."
Kingsville came out of the gate red hot, opening the contest on a 9-0 run with five points from Groves and four from freshman forward
Justine Aguilar, who made the first start of her collegiate career. The Hilltopper, however, were quick to put together a run of their own, coming back to take a one-point advantage after the first quarter. From there, the game became a back-and-forth dogfight, with the game's difference never growing outside of single digits for the remainder of the contest, until the 3:23 mark in the fourth, when the Javelinas took a 10-point lead.
Kingsville hung in the battle, coming up with big buckets down the stretch. Even when they went down by as many as eight late in the first half, they responded with a key 9-2 run that stretched into the second half and kept the Javelinas in the game.
"I just tell the team all the time, you just want to be fun to watch," Madrid said. "When you're fun to watch, more people are going to come watch you play, so hopefully they saw that tonight and they'll want to come out and watch some more."
Redshirt junior forward
Kaylee Howell joined Groves in double figures with 10 points, while freshman guard
Jade Perez put up eight points and seven rebounds. She helped lead TAMUK to another win on the glass, where the team has been so good this year, as they out-rebounded the Hilltoppers 34-26. Key in that fight as well was sophomore guard
Addisyn Parker who played all 40 minutes of the game and grabbed a game high eight rebounds.
The Javelinas will be back in the SPEC on Saturday as they take on the Rattlers from St. Mary's in a 1:00 p.m. Saturday afternoon battle. The game will also see the Javelinas celebrate both Faith Day and Play4Kay.
