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Feb. 26, 2005

Box Score

The West Texas A&M University Lady Buff basketball team overcame a technical issue when the lights when out just before their starting lineup was announced by having five players in double-figures as the Lady Buffs lit up Texas Woman's University, 97-63, Saturday in a Lone Star Conference South Division contest at the WTAMU Event Center. With the win, WTAMU reached the 20-win plateau for the 18th season under head coach Bob Schneider as the Lady Buffs won their 17th-straight over the Pioneers at Canyon and 10th in a row overall.

It was Schneider's 800th collegiate game as he improves to 605-195 (.756) at the college ranks.

The win was WTAMU's fifth in a row, as the Lady Buffs ended the regular-season with momentum heading into the LSC Tournament as the No. 2 seed, hosting Five Lady Buffs recorded double-digits, with the four highest all seniors in their final regular-season home game, led by forward Celeste Stevenson tying a game-high with 21 points. Fellow forward Vasha Adams tallied 17 points and had a career-high 10 steals to record her second double-double in a row and seventh of the season, as well as 13th of her career. Adams was two rebounds short of a triple-double as she snared eight boards, as well as two blocks and three assists.

Senior guard Stephanie Williams tallied 16 points, swiped a career-high five steals and dished out for assists. Fellow backcourt mate and classmate Suni Jo Petty added 11 points, including three 3-pointers, as well as doling out six assists, while junior forward Keisha Monroe added 10 points.

TWU was led by Adriana Martin's 21 points off the bench, while Kelley Humphries added 10 points. The Pioneers' leading scorer, Matalya McBath was held to eight points, 9.4 points below her season average, all in the first half, and only played 11 minutes, with just one minute of action after halftime due to foul trouble.

The Lady Buffs shot a blistering 61.8 percent (21-of-34) from the field in the second half to finish the game 37-of-66 (56.1 percent), as well as 9-of-25 (36.0 percent) from 3-point land.

The Pioneers were 25-of-54 (46.3 percent) field goal shooting, including 20.0 percent (3-of-15) from behind the 3-point arc.

WTMAU held a slight rebounding advantage, 32-31, but outscored TWU, 54-38, in the paint. The Lady Buff defense forced 30 Pioneer turnover, which they converted into 40 points, while TWU scored eight points off of WTAMU's 15 miscues. The Lady Buffs also ran out to a 25-8 advantage on fast break points.

The Lady Buffs were a bit slow out of the gate, as the Pioneers opened an 8-4 lead after a fast break layup from McBath at the 16:23 mark. Stevenson hit a layup with 14:46 left on the clock to give WTAMU a 13-12 lead and the Lady Buffs never looked back.

The lead reached double-digits for the first time at 27-16 after a steal and layup by Adams at the 8:35 mark and WTAMU had a double-digit lead for the rest of the game.

Williams had a fast break layup with 2:13 left in the half to put the Lady Buffs ahead by 20 for the first time of the game at 44-24 and WTAMU took a 45-27 lead into halftime.

Freshman guard Dixie Bell drained a trey from the right wing to push the Lady Buffs' lead to 30 at 91-61 with 2:28 left in the game and sophomore guard Natalie Wheeler hit a 3-pointer in the left corner with 44 seconds left for WTAMU's largest lead and the final score of the game.

Eleven of the 12 Lady Buffs in uniform got into the scoring column, including freshman forward Morgan Carrio, who made her first field goal of the season with 4:39 left in the game.

Tuesday's LSC Tournament quarterfinal against Southwestern Oklahoma will tip-off at 7 p.m.

Contact the WTAMU Athletics Ticket Office at 806-651-4424 for ticket information for both Saturday's game and for Tuesday's LSC Tournament.

Fans can tune into WTAMU Basketball action on the Buffalo Sports Network on KGNC 710 AM or streamed on the Internet at www.gobuffsgo.com.

-WT-