MARSHALL, Texas – Free throw shooting and second chance points would be the demise of the LeTourneau University women's basketball team in a 73-54 road loss to highway 80 rival East Texas Baptist University at Ornelas Gymnasium on Monday, February 12th.
LETU now stands at 4-19 overall and 2-15 in the American Southwest Conference while the Tigers picked up win No. 19 to improve to 19-5 and 13-4 in the ASC.
LeTourneau would collect 15 offensive rebounds in the game compared to only 10 for ETBU, but would wind up losing the rebounding battle by a final tally of 39-31. East Texas Baptist would make the most of their 10 offensive rebounds, outscoring the YellowJackets 32-18 in second chance points while also going 14-of-19 from the free throw line. LeTourneau saw missed opportunities throughout, finishing just 4-for-18 (22.2 percent) from the charity stripe.
A team-high 16 points would be scored by senior
Ashley Reed to go along with three assists while sophomore
Alexandria Thorne netted 15 points and had five assists along with seven rebounds. ETBU was led by Katy Boren and Karley McHenry, who both scored 16 points each.
It would be Thorne getting the YellowJackets started early on, hitting a pair of three's in the opening 2:21 of the game to give LETU a 6-4 lead on the Tigers. After seeing ETBU tie the game at 6-6 with 6:16 left in the first quarter,
Jaila Leaven would hit one of two free throws to put LeTourneau back on top in a quarter that saw four lead changes and two ties. Freshman
Keauna Whitfield would get in on the action with a triple of her own right past the midway point of the quarter to allow LETU to reclaim a 10-8 lead, but East Texas Baptist would respond with an 8-0 run that saw the YellowJackets go scoreless over the next 4:18. A Whitfield layup ended the drought with 1:41 left in the period to pull LETU back within four at 16-12, with LeTourneau able to keep the deficit at four heading into the second quarter (18-14).
The second quarter would be where the Tigers would create their gap in the game, using a 9-0 run to open the quarter and force a LeTourneau timeout with 8:09 left before halftime. Reed ended the YellowJacket drought and got LETU on the scoreboard in the second with a triple to pull LETU back to within 10 at 27-17, but East Texas Baptist managed to shoot over 50 percent from the field in the quarter to double up LeTourneau 22-11 and take a 40-25 lead into the break. A big issue for the YellowJackets in the first half would be missed opportunities from the charity stripe as LETU would go just 2-for-11 from the free throw line.
To open up the third quarter, a
Savannah Cummings layup and Reed triple would match the Tigers offensively, putting the score at 45-30 with 7:06 left in the quarter. ETBU then used a 12-2 run to open up their largest lead of the game at 57-32 before the YellowJackets would respond with an 8-1 run to close out the third period and trail by a score of 58-40 heading to the fourth.
No quit would be shown by LETU, as Reed would nail her third three of the game in the opening seconds of the quarter to force an ETBU timeout with momentum building for LeTourneau. Three point shooting for the YellowJackets would continue to be a strong point as LETU would use the long ball to keep their deficit from growing. Unfortunately for LeTourneau, it would not be enough as the Tigers would end the game by scoring eight of the final 11 points to keep the YellowJackets from mounting a comeback.
LeTourneau will conclude their 2017-18 campaign on Thursday evening, traveling to Richardson, Texas to take on ASC East Division regular-season champion Texas-Dallas at 5:30 p.m.
