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Feb. 19, 2004

Box Score

Senior guard Carlee Howard drained a school and Lone Star Conference record 10 3-pointers on her way to a career-high 32 points to lead the 21st-ranked West Texas A&M University Lady Buffs to a 104-55 rout of Texas A&M University-Commerce in LSC South division action Thursday night at the WTAMU Event Center.

Junior forward Celeste Stevenson etched her name in the WTAMU record book again, becoming the career free throws attempted record holder, after establishing a new free throws made record last Thursday night.

In that game, WTAMU blasted Texas Woman's, 108-44, marking the second time in three games and the second game all-time that the Lady Buffs have breached the 100-point echelon at the WTAMU Event Center. The twice in three games stretch is the shortest span of 100-point games since reaching the century mark twice in a four-game stretch in the 2000-01 season.

With the win, the Lady Buffs improve to 21-3 overall and 9-2 in LSC South action, remaining in a three-way logjam atop the division standings with Eastern New Mexico and Abilene Christian. ENMU routed Texas A&M-Kingsville, 70-50, while ACU held off Texas Woman's 58-42, in Thursday's action.

The Lady Buffs' win improves their record to 11-0 at home this season and is their 12th-straight home win, dating back to last year.

TAMU-Commerce lost its sixth in a row and eighth in the last nine contests and dropped to 6-18 overall, 3-8 in LSC South play.

Howard's 10 treys passes the previous school and conference record of nine by Valeree Valdez against Southwestern Oklahoma in 1998. She has drained 21 3-pointers in the last three games, leading the LSC and ranking ninth in the nation in 3-pointers made per game and ranking fourth in the conference, as well as 10th in the country in 3-point field goal percentage. Howard drilled six treys in the second half, netting 20 second-half points. She helped WTAMU to 15-34 (44.1 percent) shooting from 3-point range, hitting the second-most in school and conference history.

Stevenson has now made 482-645 from the free throw line, passing former WTAMU All-American Natasha Taylor's 465-637 output from the charity stripe from 1993-97.

Thursday night, Stevenson finished with 22 points, marking the 12th-straight game that she's tallied double-figures, scoring 20 or more in six of those contests. She also pulled down nine rebounds, coming up one short of her third-straight double-double and fourth of the season.

Junior forward Vasha Adams added 11 points, all in the first half, and added nine rebounds and swiped six steals. Adams entered Thursday's contest leading the conference and ranked 50th in the nation in steals.

Every Lady Buff in uniform scored at least three points Thursday, as WTAMU tied its season-high with 52 first half points, taking a 52-20 halftime lead.

The Lady Buff defense forced 20 Lion turnovers in the first half, equalling their points, as TAMU-C finished the night with 31 turnovers.

WTAMU opened the game with nine unanswered points, not yielding a TAMU-C point until the 17:35 mark on two free throws by Jennifer McCord, the Lions' point guard, who went down with an injury part way through the first half and never returned.

TAMU-C's Tamikki Williams hit the Lions' first field goal of the game at the 13:22 mark, to make the score 21-4.

The WTAMU lead reached 30 for the first time at 36-6 with 6:59 to play on a layup from sophomore guard Jennifer Brock, who dished out a game-high seven assists.

Fellow sophomore guard Tiffany Lewis gave the Lady Buffs their largest lead of the first half with a 3-pointer with 2:50 remaining, putting WTAMU up 50-12.

The margin hit 40 at 63-22 three minutes into the second half on a layup by Lewis and climbed to 50 at 99-49 with 2:26 to play on a pair of free throws from junior guard Stephanie Williams.

Junior forward Keisha Monroe hit the century mark for WTAMU at the 1:59 mark with one-of-two free throws.

Howard hit her 10th 3-pointer with 1:08 left to give the Lady Buffs their largest lead of the game at 103-52 and was taken out of the game on the next ball to a standing ovation.

WTAMU wraps up the home portion of its regular-season schedule on Saturday, taking on Texas A&M-Kingsville in a 6 p.m. tip-off. The Javelinas are 2-22 overall, 1-10 in LSC South play, after losing their sixth-straight game, a 70-50 decision at Eastern New Mexico Thursday. Saturday will be Senior Night at the WTAMU Event Center, as the Lady Buffs will honor Howard, their lone senior.

-WT-