The LeTourneau University women's basketball team rallied from an early 11-point deficit to defeat Howard Payne, 75-69 on Saturday in Longview.

With the win, LeTourneau begins conference play with a 2-0 mark for the first time since the 2013-14 season. The win also puts LETU over the .500 mark with a 4-3 overall mark. The loss drops Howard Payne to 2-5 overall and 0-2 in the American Southwest Conference.
 
"I am very proud of the collective team effort that we showed today against a very solid Howard Payne team," said LETU second-year head coach Leslie Reinecker. "We had contributions from many players and they did a great job of executing within our game plan."

With the win, the LeTourneau duo of senior Ashley Stephens (pictured) and junior LaTanya Drakes each had a double double performance. Stephens had 18 points and 14 rebounds to go along with two blocked shots; plus Drakes added 18 points and 10 points off the bench. Plus, junior Crystal Jones scored in double figures for the seventh-straight game, scoring 17 points, including a 7-for-7 effort from the free-throw line to go along with four steals. Also filling up the stat sheet was a three assist, six-point effort from junior Ashley Reed and off the bench, junior Jada Roberts had six points, seven rebounds and four assists.
 
In the loss, the Howard Payne tandem of Sarahi Castillo and Danyel Bradley shared with game-high honors with 19 points apiece.
 
Howard Payne scored 11 of the first 13 points of the game to prompt an early timeout for Reinecker and LeTourneau. Quickly, LETU responded by cutting the deficit to as little as four on three occasions in the first period. The visitors remained in front for most of the second period, except for a 16-second window where LeTourneau held a brief 31-30 lead with 1:05 to play.  
 
The third period was tightly contested between the two teams with LETU holding Howard Payne to 38.5% (5-for-13) shooting and the visitors holding LETU to 31.6% (6-for-19). But, it was during the third period that saw Jones start to lead the comeback efforts with nine of her 17 points. In the period, LeTourneau took its second lead of the game when Drakes hit a 3-pointer with 7:07 that put the home team ahead for most of the quarter. Then, HPU scored the final seven points of the period that put the visitors ahead 50-48.
 
The fourth period saw the score tied twice and the lead change hands on four occasions. But, it was the effort by Jones and Stephens, which sparked LeTourneau. The duo combined for 16 of the 27 points for LETU in the final period. Stephens scored on back-to-back possessions, following the fifth tie of the game that put LETU ahead 61-59 with 4:18 to play and for the rest of the game. LETU sealed the win, making 10 of 12 free throws. HPU managed to cut the deficit to as little as four in the final minute.
 
Next, LeTourneau will travel to Abilene, Texas to face McMurry on Dec. 10 at 7 p.m. and Hardin-Simmons on Dec. 12 at 5:30 p.m.