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#21 WTAMU Routs Northwest Missouri, 71-50, Monday
Dec. 20, 2004
HONOLULU, Hawaii -- The No. 21 West Texas A&M University women's basketball rode the wave of a 17-10 surge to close out the first half to open a double-digit lead and never looked back and caged the Northwest Missouri State University Bearcats, 71-50, Monday at the Hoop `N Surf Tournament at Honolulu, Hawaii.
WTAMU had four players in double-digits for the second consecutive game as the Lady Buffs won both their games in the Aloha State, after Sunday's 64-52 win over Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
Senior guard Suni Jo Petty netted a game-high 16 points, including draining four 3-pointers, while senior forward Celeste Stevenson added 15 points, hitting 11-11 free throws. Junior guard Sassy Pyburn tallied 12 points, hitting four treys as well, while senior forward Vasha Adams netted 11 points.
Adams also pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds to register her second-straight double-double, after logging 10 points and 13 rebounds.
Stevenson added eight rebounds as well. With her 30 points and 16 rebounds in WTAMU's two games, Stevenson now moves into No. 3 on both the WTAMU career scoring and rebounding lists with 1,647 points and 696 rebounds.
The difference in the game was 3-point and free throw shooting, as WTAMU was a scorching 52.9 percent (9-17) from 3-point land while NWMSU was an icy 6-31 (19.4 percent) from behind the arc. The Lady Buffs were 14-17 (82.4 percent) from the charity stripe, while the Bearcats shot 40.0 percent (4-10).
The Lady Buffs shot season highs for both 3-point and free throw shooting.
WTAMU opened the game with a 5-0 burst, and only trailed once in the game at 10-9.
The Lady Buffs later had a 21-18 lead before going on a 17-7 run to take a 38-25 lead after a pair of Stevenson free throws with 21 seconds left in the half. NWMSU's Megan Hamilton hit a flailing acrobatic 3-pointer at the buzzer to make the score 38-28 at halftime.
A trey from Petty gave the Lady Buffs a 44-30 lead at the 15:25 mark, before the Bearcats clawed some momentum and closed to 46-35 with 11:48 to go.
Pyburn regained the momentum for WTAMU by draining a trey from the right wing to open a 49-35 lead with 11:28 left and NWMSU couldn't recover.
A layup from Adams with 1:14 to play gave the Lady Buffs their biggest lead of the game at 69-44 and WTAMU coasted to victory, improving its record to 6-2 on the year.
NWMSU had its seven-game winning streak snapped and now has a 7-4 ledger.
The Lady Buffs return home to host Adams State College on Thursday, Dec. 30 at 6 p.m., followed by the WTAMU men vs. Oklahoma Panhandle State University at 8 p.m.
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