Roster | Schedule | News | Archives | Home

Feb. 9, 2008

Box Score

SAN ANGELO, Texas - Junior All-American Emily Brister notched 30 points for the ninth time in her career to lead No. 12 West Texas A&M to a 66-42 rout of Angelo State on Saturday night, helping the Lady Buffs avenge a conference loss to Abilene Christian earlier in the week. With the victory, WT improves to 17-4 overall and 7-1 in Lone Star Conference action.

Angelo State, meanwhile, falls to fourth in the league with a 5-3 conference mark and an 18-5 overall record.

Brister's 30 points bumped up her season total to 465, putting her in third place on West Texas A&M's all-time scoring list with 1,866 career points.

"Emily and Courtney [Lee] really took Thursday's loss to heart, and they both stepped up tonight to help us beat Angelo," said head coach Krista Gerlich. "Courtney kept attacking the basket and that was key for us. Also, I told the girls that we can't win ball games if Joni Unruh only gets one rebound like she did against Abilene and tonight she had six offensive rebounds and two defensive.

"There are a lot of kids who start as freshmen, like Camille Perkins for ASU, but what Joni does for us is just unthinkable."

Lee finished the game with 13 points, five assists four rebounds while freshman Joni Unruh tallied eight points and eight rebounds to tie Brister for the team-high boards. Unruh and Brister, both Amarillo High School graduates, also tallied four steals apiece in the win.

In the first half, Brister drained a three-pointer from the top of the circle at 18:15, giving the Lady Buffs the lead which they never gave up. The Lady Buffs played tough defense in the half, forcing 16 ASU turnovers while picking up six steals and two blocks. WT hustled hard on a number of plays that should have resulted in easy points for the Rambelles, one of which being Joni Unruh sprinting back to block a shot by Lindsey Leatherman off of a long inbounds pass.

Unruh sank a three-pointer of her own at the 5:48 mark which sparked an 11-6 run by the Lady Buffs that gave WT a 15-point lead, 36-21, at halftime. Junior Courtney Lee made the last two baskets of the half on a nice backdoor lay-up - with an assist from Bell - and a baseline jumper as the clock ran out.

Angelo State came out firing in the second half, cutting the WT's lead to just nine points, 39-30, at the 15:46 mark but the Rambelles never got any closer as the Lady Buffs lengthened their lead on four consecutive points from Brister.

West Texas A&M then pushed its lead back to 15 points as Bell and Brister trapped ASU's Camille Perkins and forced a turnover; Lee picked up the loose ball and lobbed it down court to Brister who sank a lay-up to put the Lady Buffs ahead, 45-30, at the 13:52 mark.

The margin was too large for the `Belles to close as the Lady Buffs remained in control for the rest of the game, bumping their lead to as much as 24 points as the clock ran out on Angelo State.

WT's stellar defense held ASU well below its season average of 70.4 points per game as the `Belles shot just 37.2% from the floor. ASU entered tonight's game as the top-three-point shooting team (36.9%) in the LSC and the top field goal defense (holding opponents to 36.7% accuracy) but West Texas A&M shot 40.7% from the floor and held the `Belles to a paltry 23.1% from long distance.

Junior Dixie Bell also played well for WT, tallying four assists and just one turnover to help the Lady Buffs hand Angelo State its biggest loss of the season. West Texas A&M beat ASU by 21 points earlier in the season, which tied the `Belles' biggest loss margin to that point after Central Oklahoma beat Angelo State by the same point difference.

"I'm really pleased with the way the girls played. I told them I'm more proud of them tonight than I've ever been before," said Gerlich. "We usually set goals of keeping the other team under a certain number of points, but tonight we set a goal to pressure them the entire game and unbeknownst to me, the girls set a goal of their own to hold ASU to under 45 points--they did it."

The Lady Buffs' next game is a 6 p.m. tip-off against Midwestern State on Feb. 13 in Wichita Falls, Texas; WT beat MSU in the first meeting this season by a 72-51 margin.