LONGVIEW, Texas – Despite leading by a score of 26-25 at the break and outscoring the opposition by a score of 21-13 in the fourth quarter, the LeTourneau University women's basketball team would be unable to overcome a sluggish start to the second half as visiting Concordia University Texas would come away with a 63-54 victory at Solheim Arena in Longview, Texas on Saturday, December 2nd.

The host YellowJackets fall to 1-5 overall and 0-2 in the American Southwest Conference with the loss while the Tornadoes bounced back from Thursday's loss to East Texas Baptist to improve to 5-2 overall and 1-1 in the ASC.

LETU would play loose and come out of the gates ready to play early on, trading the lead with CTX throughout the opening five minutes of action before taking their third lead of the game on a Keauna Whitfield layup. In the first quarter alone, seven lead changes would be had to go with two ties before the YellowJackets jumped out to a five point lead at 15-10 with 2:12 left in the quarter. Five straight points by Concordia turned the five-point lead into a tie with 38 seconds left in the period as LETU would reclaim the lead on a Whitfield free throw to hold a 16-15 advantage at the end of the quarter.

A 10-0 Concordia run opened up the second quarter to give CTX a 25-16 lead and force a LeTourneau timeout, but Sha'Donnaver Young would end the run with 4:25 left in the first half with a three to pull LETU back within six at 25-19. The Triple would spark a 10-0 run for the YellowJackets with defense stepping up big for LETU in the final five minutes of the first half to put the YellowJackets back up at the half.

Things in the second half continued the trend of double-digit runs for teams as CTX opened up the half with an 11-0 run to take their first double-digit lead of the game at 36-26 as guard Kaycie Dunkerlrey took over with three treys in the opening four minutes. The lead would be maintained around the 10-point mark before getting cut to eight on a Young free throw with 2:25 left in the third, but Concordia Texas would use a 9-0 run to end the quarter with their largest advantage of the day at 50-33.

No quit would be seen by a young YellowJacket squad with Whitfield and Ashley Reed getting LETU out to a 5-0 run to open the fourth quarter and get the deficit back down to 12 at 50-38, but CTX would hold LeTourneau at arm's length and maintain their double-digit lead. The YellowJackets managed to finally whittle the lead down to single digits at 54-45 on a Jaila Leaven free throw and get to within seven on a Madison Mayfield free throw with 1:01 remaining. Free throw shooting would play a crucial factor in the game however, as too many missed opportunities by LETU allowed CTX to sneak away with the road victory.

"I thought that we came out and played three and a half really good quarters, but we had a huge lull in the third quarter and we have to learn from it and move forward" said head coach Cassi Rozanski in a post-game interview. "We were 9-19 from the free throw line and it's tough to win a game when you don't shoot well from the charity stripe." Our whole post-game talk as a team was about the lull we had in the third quarter and how we just cannot have that when we play games in the American Southwest Conference." "We are going to move forward from this and I look forward to our girls being able to put together 40 full minutes of a game." "If we can do that then we can be successful, but we have to be able to get to that point before we can move forward."

LeTourneau managed to outshoot Concordia Texas, finishing 20-51 (39.2 percent) from the floor compared to 36.5 percent (19-52) shooting performance for CTX. A 37-26 rebounding advantage that included 11 offensive boards for the Tornadoes provided 14 second chance points for Concordia, who also scored 20 points in the paint.

Serving as a model of consistency for LETU, freshman Whitfield finished the game with 15 points and 15 rebounds for a double-double to lead the YellowJackets while Reed finished with a team-high 16 points. Young recorded three steals in the game while Karley Patterson dished out three assists. CTX was led by a game-high 19 points by Dunkerley.

Non-conference play resumes for LETU on Thursday, December 7^th, playing at Centenary College for a 6 p.m. showdown against the Ladies in Shreveport, LA.