ABILENE, Texas – Shooting woes coupled with an 18-9 deficit in points off turnovers would prove to be the difference for the LeTourneau University women's basketball team in a 76-69 road loss at McMurry University at Kimbrell Arena on Thursday, January 4th.
 
LeTourneau is now 3-9 overall and 0-5 in American Southwest Conference play while the War Hawks remain tied for first in the ASC West while improving to 7-5 overall and 5-1 in conference.
 
"Tonight we had another bad shooting night missing 46 shots" said head coach Cassi Rozanski in a post-game interview. "It's hard to beat a good team when you leave that many points out there." "Once we put things all together we have the potential to be a very good team."
 
Following a first half shooting percentage of 32.26 percent (10-31) the YellowJackets would finish just 26-72 (36.1 percent) from the field while hitting only four of 17 shots from beyond the arc (23.5 percent). McMurry was a bit more efficient from the field, going 28 for 66 (42.4 percent) while also hitting four treys (4-20, 20.0 percent). The War Hawks would hold 47-43 rebounding advantage and score 40 of their 76 points in the paint.
 
Junior Jaila Leaven netted a career-high 20 points while eclipsing the double-digit point mark for the third-time in her career which included three triples in the game. Leaven was one of three YellowJacket players to haul in seven rebounds with Keauna Whitfield (15 points, seven rebounds) and senior Savannah Cummings (six points, seven rebounds) also tying for the team lead. McMurry was led by a team-high 14 points from Skyler Reyna.
 
Points would be at a premium in the early going, with just 11 points being scored in the opening five minutes of action which saw McMurry jump out to a 9-2 lead. A Leaven layup and free throw with 2:21 left in the period drew LETU back to within six at 13-7, but five straight points allowed the War Hawks to take a double-digit lead at 18-7 before Leaven added another bucket in the closing moments to put the score at 18-9 heading into the second quarter.
 
A strong start to the second for LeTourneau saw the YellowJackets get within five at 19-14 with 8:20 remaining in the first half, but a pair of jumpers over the next 45 seconds of action pushed the lead back to 23-14. Despite repeated efforts by LETU to cut into the McMurry lead which saw the deficit get cut to six or less on three separate occasions, the War Hawks would close out the half with a layup in the final 30 seconds to hold a 34-26 lead at intermission.
 
McMurry opened up the second half by taking their largest lead of the game at 39-26 following a Reyna jumper in the paint before an LETU run that included a Leaven triple and Sha'Donnaver Young layup closed the gap back to 41-35 with 4:05 left in the quarter. The six-point deficit would be as close as LETU would get in the third, as McMurry outscored the YellowJackets 7-2 in the final 1:28 to reclaim a double-digit lead at 53-42.
 
Determined to close the gap, LETU scored the first five points of the fourth quarter to quickly get back within six points and would get as close as three at 58-55 on an Ashley Reed jumper with 5:48 left in regulation. A three-point basket along with a bucket off of an out-of-bounds play allowed the War Hawks to go back up by eight at 65-57 with 3:34 left in the game as LeTourneau could not get any closer than five points in the final minutes.
 
A day of recovery in Abilene will be followed by more American Southwest Conference action for the YellowJackets, who will head across town to take on Hardin-Simmons University for a 2 p.m. tip-off on Saturday, January 6th. The Cowgirls dropped a 78-63 home decision to East Texas Baptist Thursday night and are now 3-9 overall and 1-4 in the ASC.