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Jan. 30, 2008

Box Score

CANYON, Texas - A 23-point performance by junior guard Emily Brister helped lift the No. 14 West Texas A&M women's hoops team to an 88-71 victory over Lone Star Conference South foe Texas A&M-Kingsville on Wednesday night. With the win, the Lady Buffs - who are ranked first in the South Central Region - improve to 15-3 overall and remain perfect in league play at 5-0 in addition to upping their conference win streak to 31 games.

"It was back to the old Emily tonight," said head coach Krista Gerlich. "Not that she hasn't been playing well, because she has, but she was really active in the full-court press and caused a lot of things to happen on defense. [TAMUK] threw a bunch of defenses at us to try to shut her down and she kept working and I was really pleased with what she did tonight."

In addition to her team-high point tally, Brister also led the Lady Buffs with nine rebounds, six steals and one block; she and fellow classmate Chelsea Blackshear dished out four assists apiece. Blackshear added 14 points on 5-of-9 made field goals including three baskets from behind the arc.

Junior Courtney Lee, who won LSC South Player of the Week accolades for two consecutive weeks, and sophomore Holly Isaacs each finished with 11 points; Lee also tallied two assists and three rebounds while Isaacs had one steal and one rebound.

The first half saw five lead changes before Blackshear sank her first three-pointer of the night at the 12:01 mark, which gave WT the lead for good. Less than a minute after Blackshear's long distance basket, Brister stole the ball from TAMUK's Dyana Bullinger and sank a fastbreak lay-up to extend the Lady Buffs' lead to five, 20-15. West Texas A&M capitalized on eight Javelina turnovers to score 17 points off giveaways in the first half.

Blackshear sank another three-pointer with just over 10 minutes to go in the first half, giving WT an eight-point lead, 23-15, then senior Jenessa McKray sank a driving lay-up to put the Lady Buffs ahead, 25-15. A native of Sandy, Utah, McKray recorded season-highs in points, with 10, and in rebounds, with five.

"I've just been so proud of Jenessa, she takes her leadership role very seriously and she works very hard," said Gerlich. "She doesn't start for us but that doesn't seem to bother her because she's always working hard and she made things happen tonight."

With 6:37 left in the half, sophomore Holly Isaacs was fouled as she attempted a three-pointer and sank the ensuing three free throws to give WT a 31-20 advantage. The Javelinas would fight back to come within seven points at 38-31 off of a steal and a breakaway lay-up by Texas A&M-Kingsville's Ali Scott, but that was as close as they would get--the Lady Buffs went on a short 10-4 run in the last 3:45 of the half, including a backdoor lay-up by Lee as time expired to enter the locker room with a 48-35 lead.

The Lady Buffs dominated play in the second stanza, never allowing the Javelinas to come closer than within nine points as Brister and McKray each tallied eight points. WT took a 21-point lead, its biggest of the game, on a lay-up by McKray with 7:38 on the clock that put the Lady Buffs ahead, 75-54.

Texas A&M-Kingsville scored nine points in the last 2:52 of the game, but it was too little too late as the Lady Buffs came away with a 17-point victory. WT's bench outscored TAMUK's bench by a 36-23 margin to help collect the win, as freshman Megan McLain scored seven points in addition to Blackshear's 14 and McKray's 10.

"Chelsea played well tonight, especially in the first half. She really is starting to play well for us on defense and finding her role on our offense and I'm really pleased. I thought it got a little ugly in the end, some of our kids panicked a little and didn't handle the pressure very well so we'll have to go back to the basics and work on that because once TAMUK broke our press, we weren't playing good man to man defense," said Gerlich.

"The girls have done a nice job in developing their reputation as a good basketball team and as far as the South Division goes, everyone is ready to knock us off. Every game is very important and the girls have to keep working hard."

West Texas A&M returns to the First United Bank Center on Saturday to continue Lone Star Conference South action with a 2 p.m. match-up against Texas Woman's.