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Jan. 23, 2008

Box Score

CANYON, Texas - The No. 18 West Texas A&M women's basketball team used an 18-0 run to end the first half and keep two streaks alive on Wednesday night at the First United Bank Center. The 72-51 victory over Midwestern State was the team's 40th straight on its home court and 29th consecutive victory over a Lone Star Conference South Division opponent.

WT remains atop the LSC South standings with the victory, improving their overall mark this season to 13-3 and 3-0 in league action. Midwestern State, meanwhile, drops to 1-2 in conference play and 7-9 on the year.

The Mustangs jumped out to a 5-1 advantage in the contest, before an Emily Brister three-pointer at the 18:15 mark gave WT its first field goal of the night. The team continued to dig its way out of the early hole and a Jamie Dreiling lay-up gave the Lady Buffs their first lead of the night, 6-5, with 16:04 to play in the contest. Dreiling narrowly missed her first career double-double on Wednesday, finishing with 15 points and a game-high eight rebounds.

The game remained tight throughout much of the first half with MSU regaining the advantage at 19-18 with 5:25 to play on a Brittni Morrison jumper. Brister and Lady Buffs waited no time in countering as on the ensuing Lady Buff possession, the junior All-American from Amarillo hauled in a rebound and swooped in for an uncontested layup to put the WT above. The basket sparked a 19-0 Lady Buff run to close the half, holding the Mustangs scoreless for the final 5:25 of the half and sending the teams to the locker room with a 36-19 Lady Buff advantage.

During the game's opening 20 minutes, Midwestern State shot only 22.2 percent, 6-of-27, while the Lady Buffs were very efficient from the floor, making 14-of-25 of their shot attempts for a .560 team shooting percentage. Brister led the way with 11 of her 13 point during the opening half, while fellow junior Jamie Dreiling was a perfect 3-of-3 from the floor and made 4-of-5 free throw attempts for 10 points during the period.

Reigning LSC South Player of the Week Courtney Lee started the second half in the same fashion WT ended the first with the junior guard picking up the first two scores of the period to extend the home lead to 40-19. The Lady Buffs converted four of their first five shot opportunities after intermission while the Mustangs made one of their initial five shots.

Lee finished the contest with 14 points on 5-of-5 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 from the charity stripe.

During the second half the Lady Buffs maintained their torrid shooting pace, connecting on 13-of-22 attempts for a 59.1 shooting percentage in the period and a 57.4 percentage for the game. Freshman Joni Unruh was a big part of the high percentage, making 6-of-7 shots in the game for a career-high 16 points.

The Lady Buffs now hit the road for a pair of LSC South contests, against Tarleton State on Saturday and at Texas A&M-Kingsville next week. The next home action for WT will be on Feb. 2 when they host Texas Woman's in a 2 p.m. contest.