The LeTourneau University women's basketball outscored host Ozarks by 29 (39-10) en route to a 68-56 win on Thursday night in Clarksville, Arkansas.
The YellowJackets (10-6, 6-2 ASC) bench scored 20 of its 39 points in the fourth quarter for the win. Junior
Shaquicia Johnson (pictured) led the reserves with eight points in the final quarter en route to a 12-point effort for the contest. Johnson was joined in double figures by fellow reserve
LaTanya Drakes, who added 13 and junior starter
Crystal Jones, who added a team-high 15 in the win.
For Drakes, it was her seventh time in double figures in the last eight games; plus for Jones, it is her 15
th game in double figures and 11 of her 15 came in the second half for LeTourneau. Junior
Jada Roberts continues to come close to a triple double with her all-around play with eight points, a team-high 10 rebounds and seven assists.
The Eagles (5-5, 1-4 ASC) were led by Ashley Hipps and Macie Kultgen, who had 16 and 12 points, respectively. Ozarks was held to 33.3% (21-for-63) shooting from the field, including 6.7% (1-for-15) from the 3-point line. The 33.3% effort was its second lowest effort on the season.
"It wasn't pretty, but once again this team found a way to get another win on the road," said LETU head coach
Leslie Reinecker. "We had several players step up for us, especially
Shaquicia Johnson. It is always tough to win on the road and I am proud of them for battling it out, but now we are going to focus on our consistency." Six of the 10 wins for LETU in 2015-16 have been away from Longview as the last LETU squad to do that was the 2013-14 team.
LeTourneau scored the final 10 points of the first quarter for an early 14-4 lead and pushed the lead to as much as 17, 25-8, in the first half. A resilient Ozarks squad scored the final seven points of the third quarter and the first two of the fourth for a 41-40 lead with 9:52 to play. The two teams let the lead exchange hands in the final quarter until a 6-0 spurt by the LETU bench tandem of Drakes and Johnson put the YellowJackets ahead for the rest of the game. LeTourneau stretched the margin to as much as 11 to end the comeback hopes for the host Eagles in the quarter. The YellowJackets made its final five free-throw attempts to seal the win.
Next, LeTourneau will travel to Richardson to face Texas-Dallas on Saturday, Jan. 16 at 1 p.m.
