BROWNWOOD, Texas - Unable to find their shooting stroke, the LeTourneau University women's basketball team would find themselves on the losing end of a 60-45 road loss to Howard Payne University at the Brownwood Coliseum in Brownwood, Texas on Monday, December 11th. 

LETU concludes their pre-Christmas schedule with a 2-7 overall record and is now 0-4 in the American Southwest Conference while HPU improved to 4-5 overall and 1-1 in the ASC. 

In the battle of the YellowJackets, points would be hard to come by for both teams with poor shooting causing both squads to find themselves in a low scoring first quarter. With the score 5-2 in favor of Howard Payne with 6:19 remaining in the opening quarter, HPU would go on and connect on a layup before LETU senior forward Savannah Cummings would answer on the other end of the court with a layup of her own to keep the LeTourneau deficit at three. Howard Payne would then build their lead out to five on two separate occasions, but never could push their lead out any further as LETU would manage to keep the score within three at 13-10 heading to the second quarter. 

LeTourneau would come out with one of their better shooting quarters in the second, connecting on their first two shots of the period to pull within one at 13-12 and again at 16-15 with the second shot coming from senior guard Ashley Reed. LETU would get themselves back within a single point one final time with 6:37 remaining in the first half before HPU would hit a jumper followed by two free throws to push their lead back out to five at 22-17 as LeTourneau never could find a way to claim a lead over the YellowJackets. The Howard Payne lead would manage to stay between three and five points for a majority of the rest of the half before a Jada Evans jumper with 25 seconds remaining in the first half would put LETU in their biggest hole they had seen at 28-21 at intermission. 

More of the same would be seen to open the second half as LeTourneau would again find a way to cut into the Howard Payne lead and once again pull to within three on three separate occasions but never could find a way to tie the game up. Following a Sha'Donnaver Young three to pull LETU within three for the final time at 34-31 with 6:34 left in the third quarter, HPU would use an 8-1 run to end the quarter and take their first double-digit lead of the game at 42-32 and leave LeTourneau with work to do in the final 10 minutes of action. 

Four straight points to open the fourth by Howard Payne extended their 8-1 run into a 12-1 run before Young would break the scoreless streak for LeTourneau to keep the YellowJackets within 12 at 46-34 while still having 8:31 left in the game to mount a comeback. Tough sledding for LETU saw Howard Payne maintain their double-digit lead for a majority of the fourth as Keauna Whitfield would grab an offensive rebound off her own miss and connect on a putback to cut the lead down to 52-43 with 2:55 remaining. Despite the effort, it would not be enough as HPU would hit a pair of treys to put the game out of reach and come away with the 15 point victory. 

"I saw some good things from our team tonight but we didn't put a full game together" said head coach Cassi Rozanski in a post game interview. "This is always a tough road trip and my goal is that we learn from it and come back from the break a better team."

LeTourneau connected on just 19 of 63 (30.2 percent) of their shots from the field and hit just two of 17 (11.8 percent) from beyond the three point line while Howard Payne would manage to go 23-64 (35.9 percent) from the field while hitting four of 17 (23.5 percent) shots from beyond the arc. Turnovers would be an issue for both teams as LeTourneau would be guilty of 17 compared to 15 for HPU with both teams scoring double-digits off turnovers (17 for Howard Payne, 11 for LeTourneau). 

LETU was led with three players in double digits as Whitfield (14 points), Young (12 points) and Reed (10 points) all played a key role in the YellowJacket offense. Whitfield hauled in 10 rebounds to collect a double-double to go along with two assists while Cummings had six points and nine rebounds. Howard Payne was paced by a game-high 16 points from Valarie Matlock. 

LeTourneau will now have an 18-day layoff before returning to action on Friday, December 29th when they will take part in the ASC/SCAC Holiday Classic. LETU will play Texas Lutheran University at 2 p.m. in Kerrville, TX to open the tournament before squaring off against host Schreiner University on Saturday, December 30th at 6 p.m. to close out the 2017 slate.