KERRVILLE, Texas – After overcoming a 13 point halftime deficit to tie the game with 5:39 left in the game, the LeTourneau University women's basketball team fell short of completing a comeback in a 66-61 neutral court loss to Texas Lutheran University at the SCAC/ASC Crossover Tournament in Kerrville, Texas on Friday, December 29th.
 
LETU is now 2-8 on the year following their third single-digit loss of the year while the Bulldogs improved to 4-6 overall.
 
A total of five lead changes were seen in the opening 10 minutes of action with both teams coming out of the gates early on and trying to stick to their style of play. Senior Savannah Cummings would manage to get the YellowJackets off to a quick start by scoring five straight points to tie the game at 8-8 with 6:51 remaining in the first quarter before adding another three straight points to give LETU an 11-10 lead. LeTourneau would then manage to hold onto the lead up until the final seconds of the opening period when Stacey Radtke would hit a jumper to give Texas Lutheran a 15-13 lead.
 
Second quarter woes ended up putting LETU in a double-digit deficit as Ashley Reed would score on a layup before going through a 3:17 scoreless drought that saw TLU open up a 22-15 lead. Three point shooting extended the Bulldog lead to 10 at 27-17 with 5:57 remaining in the first half with the lead getting pushed to as high as 15 points. Keauna Whitfield would give LETU a spark at the end of the half by getting a steal and layup to pull LeTourneau back to 39-26.
 
LETU opened up the second half in a much different fashion than the way the second quarter started, scoring the first eight points of the half to pull within five at 39-34 on a Sha'Donnaver Young jumper before TLU hit one of their eight three's in the game to push the lead back to eight. Reed and Cummings would take over once again after seeing the YellowJackets fall behind by 10, scoring eight of LeTourneau's next 10 points to get LETU within three at 48-45 before heading into the fourth trailing by a score of 50-48.
 
LETU would manage to stay within a single possession throughout the opening minutes of the fourth quarter before Reed hit her fifth trey of the game to give LeTourneau their first lead of the second half at 53-52. Cummings would then add a layup to put the lead at three before TLU used their potent three point attack to tie the game at 55-55 heading into the final five minutes of the game.
 
Free throws became crucial down the stretch, with nine of the final 16 points of the game coming from the charity stripe as TLU would see Cami Davis hit three consecutive free throws to break a 59-59 deadlock. Following an offensive rebound and layup by Young to pull LETU within one at 62-61, Texas Lutheran would respond with a layup to take a three point lead with 12 seconds remaining. LeTourneau would get one final shot at a game-tying three that would bounce off the front of the rim and into the hands of TLU's Abby Hroch who would ice the game with a pair of free throws.
 
"We didn't shoot the ball well in the first half going 10-42 from the field" said head coach Cassi Rozanski in a post-game interview. "I was proud of the fight in the second half to come back and give ourselves a chance." "There were a couple plays down the stretch where a few calls didn't go our way that hurt us and we weren't able to bounce back from, but I am really proud of the fight our girls had today."
 
Opportunities were seen by LETU with a total of 17 second chance points in the game, but the YellowJackets would finish just 21-75 (28 percent) from the field and hit just five of 18 (27.8 percent) of their shots from beyond the arc. Texas Lutheran knocked in 22 of 52 (42.3 percent) of their shots from the field and scored 22 points in the paint to overcome a 52-37 rebounding deficit.
 
Reed led all players in the game with 17 points and added three rebounds while Cummings tacked on 16 points and had 11 rebounds to record a double-double. Whitfield joined Cummings with a double-double of her own after scoring 11 points and hauling in 10 boards while Young hauled in 11 rebounds as well. Texas Lutheran was led by 13 points from Davis.
 
LETU will get a chance to rebound tomorrow evening when they take on host school Schreiner University at 6 p.m. in their second game of the SCAC/ASC Crossover Tournament.